Subjected to Conformity
by Eve Nightingale
Summary: The up and downs of highschool is what makes it fun. Ep 37: Winry finally tries to do something about Clause and ends up being in debt to Al because of it. Also, Ed's friends get their photo's from the abandoned church back and are totally horrified!
1. Episode 1 Getting There

Love triangles, lies, rumors, drugs, parties; all that stuff that adds drama to each and every one of our lives. I've dealt with it, you've dealt with it, now, let's see how Ed, Al and then rest of their friends cope.

The idea with this fic is a little different than most with high school fics. Instead of the perents being the obsticals that the kids need to overcome, it's the situations that inflict on themselvs.

Also, I decided that I wanted to re-write this chapter in certain areas.

I believe I corrected most typos and corrected a little contunity for later on in the fic. Hope you enjoy it. ;) 

* * *

Chapter 1 - Getting There.

* * *

"I swear if I don't find it, I'm going to lose my mind." Ed said as he treked up the stairs one more time, quickly ducking into the bathroom to see if he'd have left it on the counter. "Dammit." He took a left and walked into his and Al's room. "Al did you see my...what are you doing? We have to go."

Al furiously did his best to finish typing before Ed walked up behind him to peer at what he was writing. "I'll be down in a sec. Jus-"

"Who's that?" Ed surprised his brother from behind. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of some young girl, looking to be around age fifteen, on the computer screen, her little tank top hanging dangerously low, showing a lot of cleavage.

"No one you need to know about." He quickly said goodbye and logged off.

"Cybering? How juvenile." Ed rolled his eyes.

Al got close to his face. "I don't see you doing any better." He smirked. "Let's go."

Ed scanned the room. "Did you see my cell phone? I'm not leaving without it."

He thought for a moment. "No. Let's go. You kicked me off the computer, don't make me wait now."

Ed planted his fists on his hips. "I'm not leaving without it. You remember last week? Your phone was dead and I left mine at home." He allowed it to sink in for a second. "Or do I have to remind you about the three hour walk home? This is a new neighbourhood, I don't want to chance anything."

"The school's like, a ten minute walk." Ed only gave him an annoyed stare. Al raised his hands up in defense. "Ok, ok, fine, I'll check downstairs." With that said, he left the room.

Ed and Al, at the time, were sharing a room. Normally they would have their own separate rooms, but the one Al wanted had a leak in the ceiling and some of the dry wall had water damage, so until it was fixed, they were stuck together.

They had just moved to a new town, a lovely little place with lots of kids their age, high school kids. Edward and Alphonse, identical twins, protested the move, but their cries went unheard. 'Go where the work is', was the parents excuese; and though they protested it, getting out of the apartment they were in and into the new house was something they were looking forward to.

Ed pushed the thought of being cramped in the same room as his brother out of his mind and walked over to his own desk. It was neatly stacked with a few books and a couple of magazines, no magazines that should have been hidden, but desperately needed to be put away, they were becoming an eye sore. The room in and of itself was in disarray, but it was to be expected, they just moved in the day before.

His mother and father both preformed on stage, in operatic theater, so they moved where the jobs took them. This new city they moved to was nothing extravagant, but quite rich when it came to live theater. Hence the reason for the move.

He opened the drawer to his desk and shuffled around some other papers that needed to be organized, still, nothing caught his eye that resembled his phone. "Damn."

"You ready?" His father, Von, poked his head in the room to inquire about leaving for school.

"No...did you see my cell anywhere?" Ed hated leaving home without it, ever since him and Al got stranded, he was antsy about going without it.

"Afraid not. You don't need it anyway, you're just going to school." It was true, the school was only a short walk away.

"But what if I want to go somewhere after school, what would I do then?" Ed raised a very good point.

"Then don't." His father gave a counter-point.

Ed slumped his head to the side and sighed. "I suppose." With that said, he followed his father downstairs and into the kitchen where Al was finishing off a cereal bar. "Any luck?"

Al shook his head. "I didn't even look."

He frowned. "Why not?" Ed snipped at his brother.

"Watch." Al walked past him to the cordless phone sitting on the kitchen table. Picking it up, he proceeded to dial a number, then, he stood with the phone slightly away from his face.

Ed's eyes lit up as he felt something move alongside his leg. With a grimace, he reached down into the pocket that adorn the side of his leg and reached inside, only to re-emerge with his cell phone in hand, it was a Sanyo modle. He flipped it up and held it begrudgingly to his face. "Thanks Al." And with that, Ed flipped the phone shut again.

"You're welcome. And you can stop worrying now. You're always forgetful when you worry." Al smirked as he hung the phone up. He ruffled Ed's hair. "It's just school, just do what I do and maybe you'll fit in this time." It wasn't very often that he got the upper hand on his brother, but he decided to gloat while he got the chance.

"Now that that's over, let's go." Von gingled the keys.

"Actually, my ride is going to be here in another few minutes, so just leave without me." Al waved as he poured himself some orange juice.

"Ride?" Ed said in disbelief. "Who the hell are you getting a ride from? We just got here."

Al, being the social butterfly that he was, smiled. "I went to check out the mall yesterday, and I ran into some guys from our school. They're in grade twelve, and offered to give me a ride in today." He smiled wide. "They're onthe basketball team, so I'm hoping they'll put in a good word for me." Unlike his brother, Al was very inclined when it came to sports. Basketball being his all time favorite, he had his hopes set on joining the school's team.

"You say to act mor like you, but how can I do that when you never tell me that you're going anywere? Whatever. I'd rather not, I'll figure out something on my own." Ed slung his bookbag over his shoulder.

Von shrugged. "Oh well, let's go."

Ed nodded. "Whatever."

* * *

"Mind if I drive?" Ed asked as he stood on the passanger side of the car.

"You know the way?" He asked, a little doubtful.

Ed nodded. "Of course." He held up his hand and his father reluctantly tossed him the keys. Rounding the car, he hopped into the driver side and reached over, unlocking the passenger side, allowing his father to enter the vehicle. "You don't have to go with me, I won't get lost." He said as he stuck the key in the ignition.

The older man shook his head. "I need the van today, so I can't let you go alone. Tomorrow though, it's all yours."

Ed smiled. "Thanks." Starting up the car, he backed it out of the driveway.

* * *

"Alright, front and center, both of you, pick up your stuff and move back." Mrs. Curtis barked her demand.

"What did we do?" The boy on the right put up a fuss.

"Nothing." The teacher said as she flipped one of her many braids behind her shoulders. "We're getting two new students, I want them up front for the first while, till they're caught up on what we're doing. So don't worry, you'll get your seats back soon."

The boy who protested nodded. "Oh, alright, sorry Miss." With that, he and the one next to him shuffled down back.

"Anyway, let's get started. Pick up your notes from yesterday, let's see what you all got down." She knew that the two of them needed to get registered first, so they were going to be another few minutes. Luckily for her, they would be in before homeroom let out, so she would get a chance to meet her new students.

A young girl, sitting near the back of the room, with long dark black hair, leaned across the row to her friend. "So." She whispered in a hushed tone. "Who do you think we're getting?"

The blond girl with the long hair looked up form her work. "Not sure."

"I hope we're getting boys." She smirked, her green eyes sparkled. "There's too much competition as it is, so some more boys would be good." She noticed her friend shrug. "A shrug? Come on Winry, you can't say you're not at least a little curious."

She put her pen down and leaned in. "Does it really matter, Clause?"

Giving her an eye roll, she smirked. "Well, for someone like you who has all the boys drooling over her maybe not, but I have to keep my options open." She sat back up. "I guess playing guessing games isn't that fun, I suppose we'll have to wait and find out."

"Suppose so." Winry was disamused.

* * *

"You're brother's...twins at that." Mr. Lang smiled as he looked down through his bifocals.

"Identical twins." Al added, despite the blatant lack of similarities.

He looked skeptical. "...? You'll be assigned to room 304, Mrs. Curtis. She's a little strict, but I'm sure you'll get along great. She's also coordinator and coach of most of te school's sports teams, so if either of you are interested in it, you should talk to her before lunch, at first break. One of her star players on the basketball team came down with carpal tunnel, so she needs a replacement." He peered up over his small glasses to see a big wide smile on Alphonse's face. "Any takers? We pride ourselves on our basketball team."

Al nodded. "I'll be sure to talk to her."

Mr. Lang looked back down at his papers. "And Edward, ivy league aspirations, huh?"

Ed nodded. "Yes sir."

He looked over his raster. "You know they look at extra curriculars now? You should get into one of the after school clubs if you want to get accepted without hassle."

Ed sighed. "I'll have to see what's offered." As much as he hated to admit it, when it came to sports, Ed didn't really excell. He, unlike his brother, based more importance on study rather than sports teams and after school clubs. Though they were indeed identical twins, there were quite a few differences which made them stand apart like black on white.

"There's debating, drama, tutoring, lots of different things that don't involve sports." He smiled as he handed the boys their respective files. "I myself was never good at sports on account of my bronchitis."

Ed's expression brightened. "Thank you, Sir." Not that he didn't like sports at all, he just preferred brain building activities.

"Thanks." Al followed up and took his folder in hand.

"Room 304 is obviously on the third level; go up the stairs straight ahead after you leave the office, then when you reach the third floor it's the door farthest down the hall on the right. Right next to the windows at the front of the building. Can you remember that?" He leaned back in his computer chair.

"No." Al said, rather distraught.

"We'll manage." Ed smiled. "Come on, Al." With that, they exited the office.

"Where did he say to go again? That went clear over my head." Al looked from side to side.

Ed face palmed. "You'd be lost without me. Come on." With that, Ed led his brother up the stairs.

* * *

For any first time readers, I just want to warn you that I'm a big fan of cliffhangers. But I'm also good to finish a thought. So I won't leave you hanging for too long. :P

Enjoy the rest of the fic.


	2. Episode 2 Scarred

Ok, I got a couple of reviews. That's great guys, thanks a bunch. I'd like to thank you there laila, for your review. You didn't leave an e-mail for me to contact you at, but oh well, thanks just the same.

I've lived high school life, and it's SO full of _dramaaaaa. _I hung out with the queen of drama, so I'm use to it. XP  
Anyway, this one was a little long, but I liked the progression. I mean, I didn't even get past lunch in this one. I like it when it takes longer, not too much longer, to build characters. Honestly, I was going to skip to the end of the day and have them tell their parents how it all went. But that seemed a little too lazy, even for me. So here it is, Ed and Al's first half a day at school.

Here is chapter two, I hope you guys enjoy. (Don't forget, any review will do. ;D)

* * *

**_Chapter 2 - Scarred_**

* * *

There was a knock on the door. Mrs. Curtis looked away form the note she was writing on the board. "Perfect timing." Finished off the last word in her sentence and dotting the end with a period, she placing the chalk down on the edge of the board. Turning to the class, she spoke. "Now, make sure to be on your best behavior, and treat the new students with respect." Knowing that teens their age tended to mimic the behavior of vultures at times, she gave them fair warning as she approached the door.

Opening it, it revealed two young boys, both looking to be around the age of sixteen. The one in the front had short sandy blond hair and a strong build and the one behind him had longer hair, tied back in a pony tail and was reletivly slender. "I take it you're my new students, come in." She opened the door fully, allowing the two boys to now be visible to the entire class. "I'd like you to meet Edward and Alphonse Hohenheime, they're twins. Quite intresting, yes?" She led them to the front of the class.

Clause nearly jumped straight up from her seat as soon as she laid eyes on the two new students. "Winry." She poked her. "Look!" She said in a whispered hush.

Winry was quite non-chalantly still copying down the note off the board. "What?" She looked up to see none other than the two new people in the class. "That's great." She continued copying off the board.

"Good to see you're not intrested." She said in a quiet tone. "More for me." She smiled as she rubbed her hands together.

The teacher caught a glimps of Clause talking. "Show some respect Clause, pay attention." With that she resumed welcoming Ed and Al. "Would you two care to introduce youreslves?"

Ed inwardly panicked while Al smiled wide.

* * *

"That could have went better." Ed sulked as he sipped his chocolate milk. "If you ever need to know anything about awkward social graces, be sure to come to me first. I'm a savant."

Al sighed. "I can't help it that I'm good with people. Maybe if you didn't make people feel stupid with all those big words you use." He raised a very good point. Edward at times did talk over people, using words that normally weren't in the day to day vocabulary of the average teenager.

Ed thought for a second. "'Anything'? 'Awkward?' Those aren't big words Al."

He shook his head. "No, that last word you used."

Thinking one more time. "Savant? That's not a big word either."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Just dumb it down a little next time." He drank a mouthful of Pepsi and replaced the cap. "Oh, and dont' mention Magic."

"I didn't." He sighed. "I know not to dig my own grave."

"See!" Al pointed at him. "You did it again. Don't say things like 'I know not to dig my own grave' try something like 'I'm not a dumbass.'" Al snickered. "Dumbass."

Ed sighed. "I can't help it, it's the way I speak."

Al gritted his teeth. "I said stop it!"

"I didn't do anything that time!" Ed snapped at him.

"Alphonse." Clause greeted him from behind, breaking the argument they were on the verge of letting get out of control, she had Winry standing next to her. "I was wondering if you'd like to eat lunch with me." She twirled her foot on the floor back and forth.

Al hesitated until he set eyes on Winry. She was tall, and had a nice curvy figure and beautiful long blond hair accented by bright green eyes. Ed glanced up to her as well, but was unintrested and went back to eating. Al made eye contact with his brother and gave a look of despiration.

Ed sighed. "I dont' care what you do."

He nodded. "Alright." He said with uncertain tone. Picking up his tray, he left Ed to sit by himself. Following the girls, he looked over his shoulder and heaved a sigh. He flet bad for Ed, he never really did end up as popular with people as he did. He was going to try and help him out later on, but right then, all he was concened about was eating lunch with this beautiful fair haired girl and, he supposed, the girl who asked him as well.

Giving a shake of his head, Ed groaned in frustration. It was back to square one for him, being somewhat of a social outcast was, for some crule reason, written in his genes but, for a even cruler reason, not in his brother's. Ed had friends before he moved, but only a few.

Edward thought that high school was going to breeze by, but apparently, it was looking to be just the same as middle school. Finishing off the rest of his chocolate milk, he got up to leave, only to notice a series of a few papers stapled together laying on the floor.

After close examination, he came to the conclusion that it was a bio lab, he then realized that it wasn't just _any_ bio lab though, it belonged to that blond girl, Winry, from his homeroom class. Taking it, he stuffed it in his binder and opted to give it to the teacher to return to Winry, saving himself the awkwardness of trying to talk to her.

Having not had a girlfriend before, or even any friends that were girls, he was no good at talking to them. Satisfied all was well, he dumped his tray off and placed it back at the beginning of the line for someone else to use and exited out the nearby doors. He walked into the hall way and walked toward the back of the building, he wanted to get a good look at the park out back of the school. Al told him that the sports feilds for the school were enormous. He walked by a couple of kids his age who seemed to be arguing.

"You're insane! Greedo shot first, it's was as plain as day. Han ducked out of the way and then shot him. It was self-defense." The tall boy, who was standing, folded his arms in triumph.

"No he didn't!" The other boy shook his head. "It must have taken place in the split second that I blinked, because I never seen that scene. And I've watched all the movies about five times over."

"Greedo shot first, trust me." He stated without fazing what so ever.

Ed couldn't help but be bothered. He intervined. "Actually, you're both right. Though, originally, Han shot first. The scene you're talking about is the new special edition where they added in a scene of Greedo shooting first. They just did it to make Han come off as less of an ass than he was in the original release where he did, in fact, shoot first."

The two boys exchanged glances and then the one who was standing, smiled. "I didn't think the new kid would be a Star Wars buff like us." He smiled. "Edward, right? Good to meet you, name's Leo, that's Russle."

He waved. "Hey."

Ed waved in return. "Hey." Finally, someone he could connect with. He may have been considered a geek to everyone else, but at least there was a few people who could accept him, regardless of the geek title or not. "I've been a big fan of the series for a few years now. Magic is actually how I got introduced to Star Wars in the first place. Either of you into Magic?" He raised his hopes.

Russle nodded. "I was the champ for the last two years at middle school. And from the sounds of it, I get to defend my title again this year."

"I just started playing last year, I'm still not that good." Leo smirked.

Magic: The Gathering was a very popular game amongst his old friends, he was relieved he managed to stumble across at least one person who enjoyed it, otherwise he was subjected to giving it up. "It takes some getting use to."

Russel reached into his bookback hanging at his knees and emerged with a small box of cards. "Do you have your deck here?"

Ed smirked. "Of course."

* * *

"So, you're joining the basketball team?" Clause rested her cheek on her fist. "I guess well be cheering you on then." She couldn't help but smile.

Al leaned back in his chair and glanced at Winry who was sitting on the opposite side of the table. "Are you on the cheerleading team or something?"

Clause nodded. "Yeah, we all are. Winry here is our captain. We're praticing after school today if you want to watch. Hey, maybe the coach'll let you help us stretch." The rest of the girls giggled at the thought.

Al couldn't help but blush a little at that line. "Hopefully." He smiled, once agian, he turned his attention to Winry who was staring off at the exit near the beginning of the lunch line.

"I can't wait to see your first game. What position did you play at your old school?" She made small talk to keep him intrested and the conversation going. Clause didn't even want to realize that Al's eyes were only for Winry.

"I was offense." He smiled warmly as Winry turned her attention towards him. "Never lost a game."

* * *

Aside from the inital awkwardness, Ed finally managed to settle in. Russel and Leo were quite inviting and not judgmental in the slightest. "Ha!" Ed exclaimed. "Mana burn." Leo hung his head. "Don't look into it too much, it takes a while to get good."

Al approached his brother from behind. "What are you doing?" He said in disbelief, he couldn't believe that he had actually brought the cards to school. He and the others had left the lunch room in favor of roaming.

Ed glanced toward his bother. "...Knitting. What's it look like." He said in a sarcastic tone.

With a smirk, "It looks like you'll die a virgin." Al retorted.

"At least I'll have good problem solving skills and a sharp mind, what do you have going for you? Rember, the mind last a whole lot longer than the body. Right, crippy boy." Ed scoffed.

"Whatever. Our next classes are seperate, so I figured I'd tell you I'm going to help the cheerleaders stretch at their pratice." Al slung his bookbag over his shoulder. "So you can walk home alone, ok?"

"Sure, sure, got you." Ed flagged him on and quickly turned back to his hand of cards. Al walked off. "Come on Leo, you have to have something in your hand."

He flipped through the cards. "This isn't a hand, it's a finger."

"So why is your brother such a knob? And why aren't you?" Russel asked without remorse while standing behind Leo.

Ed couldn't help but laugh. It was true, he and Al were from two different sides of two different spectrums. "Circumstance I guess." He folded his hand and held it down. "When we were little, we had a treehouse. There was one occasion after a storm where it fell over and I was in it at the time. I hit my head pretty hard and 'effed up my vision. I actually use to be in baseball with Al when we were kids, but after the incident, I needed glasses. It was too tough playing sports with them, so I just gave up. Al kept going, so it's no wonder he's the way he is and I am the way I am."

Leo nodded. "Makes sence...so, do you still need glasses?"

Ed nodded. "Yeah, but I have contacts."

* * *

"So why is your borther such a dork? And how come you aren't?" Clause asked in a snotty tone.

Al rubbed the back of his head, he wasn't all too sure wheather or not Ed wanted him to tell anyone how things came to be, so he opted for a half truth. "Well, he ended up needing glasses, so he quit sports, and I didn't."

"Oh, that's lame. At least you turned out alright." She patted his left shoulder.

"Yeah." He said, rather distant.

The long black haired girl glanced at Al seductivly, without his knowing. He had a really nice body for a boy his age, and far be it for her not to admire it. Which is when she noticed it, a scar, going along the side of his arm. It extended from halfway across the side of his hand to about six inches along the side of his forearm. "What's that?" She took hold of his left hand and pulled it into plain sight.

"That?" Al turned his arm to see just what she was looking at, as if he didn't already know. "Oh, that. That's just a scar that I got from Ed. Not important." He removed his hand from her grasp and lowered it down to his side.

Clause was shocked. She never thought that Ed would have done something like that to his own brother, he must have really been dangerous. Making a note not to get on Ed's bad side, she kept walking alongside Al, toward the back of the school. The girls were showing him around for the remainder of lunch.

* * *

"That looks pretty hard core. Where'd you get that?" Russel asked, refrencing Ed's right arm.

He lifted it up and looked at the scar that was the spitting image of Al's scar. "Oh, this, Al gave that to me along time ago. He was always fond of invading people's personal space a bit much for anyone's good." He gathered up his cards, in triumph, and placed them back in the deck holding box.

"Al gave that to you? ...geez...shitty." Leo added in.

Russel piped up again. "Why did he do that?"

Ed shrugged as he picked his things up, bookbag and jacket. "Meh, not important."

* * *

"Why do you think he would do that?" Clause spoke to a few of the other girls while Al was turned away and doing something else.

"Maybe they hate eachother." One of the girls suggested.

"Maybe, Ed's like, the evil tiwn." Another added.

She folded her arms and glanced over at Al, he was trying to strike up a conversation with Winry, but she didn't seem to be buying it. Clause knew it right then and there, he was getting a crush on Winry, and she was determined not to let it happen. "We'll have to confront Ed about it then. See just what the hell his problem is, and make sure he stays with the freaks, away from all us." Helping Al solve the problem of his psychodic brother was going to, in her mind, help her win him over. "Ok?"

The other girls nodded.

* * *

I'd like to confess something right here. I do NOT like either Star Wars or Magic: The Gathering. I have however married a geek who. indeed, loves them both.

And I assure you, I say geek with total endearment. For I too, am a geek. I mean, I have an image map on my home page which I bragged to my friends about. Check it out. It's shitty, but I got all the links to work, which makes me happy int he face! XD

Anyway, drop me a line, tell me what you think. Oh...and it's late, I'm not doing the spell check thing. Sorry. DX


	3. Episode 3 Followers and Leaders

I know I'm updating this one kind of fast, but I'm on a role. XD  
I've always wanted to write about my expirences in High School, so now is the perfect time to impart on you, some of my knowledge...or something like that. DX

Thanks for the support...even if only one (Or two) of you is reviewing. (Give the rest of my readers an evil eye)

I notice that regardless that if I ask nicely or not, you people still don't review...hmm, what's up with that? o.O

Anyway, Here's chapter 3. Enjoy.

* * *

_**Chapter 3 - Followers and Leaders**_

* * *

"And that's the gym, the cheerleaders usually all hang out up there during the lunch hour, so we tend to avoid them. Not like there's any intelligent life up there anyway." Leo scoffed. 

Ed sweat-dropped. "I'm sure they're not all that bad."

Russel laughed out loud for a second. "...Sorry, that was funny. Plastic's are pretty stupid. They say they're more social and well adjusted, but really, they're not; they keep secrets from each other all the time and stab eachother in the back. And that queen bee who hangs out with them is irritating."

"Queen bee? Winry?" Ed asked.

Leo shook his head. "No, Winry's not all that bad, when the preps yell profanities at us, she doesn't. I really don't know what her deal is, why she doesn't bug us, she is a plastic, right alongside the rest of them. But the one Russ is referring to is Clause. She goes out of her way to make our lives hell. I mean, I can deal with it, it's just Aria I'm worried about."

"Another friend of yours?" Ed inquired.

"Yeah, we went to middle school with her, she's really nice, but she takes being picked on pretty rough. Shame she's out sick right now. Oh, and then there's Bunny. Her real name's Paninya, but she got the name Bunny somehow. She's helping out her home room teacher for the rest of the dayso she's gone for now." He shrugged. "It use to just be the four of us, but now that you're here...that means we have a car load." He smiled wide and tapped Russel in the shoulder.

Russel snapped a finger and pointed at him. "You're right. We can tell your mom you can't take your cousin now."

"Huh?" Ed was confused.

Leo smiled. "We're going on a camping trip this weekend, and we were going to take my younger cousin, but now that you're here, I can get out of taking that little shit with us." He fixed the collar of his long coat. "This is great. And it'll get us some time to get to know you a little better. Good thing you reminded me Russ."

Ed was quickly spun around to come, nearly, face to face with Clause. "I don't know what your deal is." She began in the rudest tone she could muster. "But you better stay the hell away from us."

"What are you talking about?" Ed seemed to be a few steps behind everyone that day.

She planted her fists on her hips. "I saw what you did to him. So unless you want every sports team in the school, and me, after you, I suggest you back the fuck off." She gave him a shove, not too rough, just enough to make him stumble backward.

"Yeah, you better leave him alone. Freaks." Another girl antagonized.

"Know your place." The other followed up with a side to side head motion.

"Hey, here's an idea." Leo pushed his way in front of the girls. "Piss of and leave him alone, he didn't do anything to you. I don't even think he knows you morons. Besides, you're the ones who always bug us."

Ed spoke from behind Leo. "Also, Al's a big boy, I'm sure he doesn't need a scrawny little twit like you fighting his battles for him." He nodded.

Leo agreed. "Well put. Now stop bothering us."

Clause stood up on her tip toes and got really close to his face. "What are you gonna' do if I don't?" A smug expression on her face.

"This." Leo smirked and proceeded to make a 'hawking' noise in the back of his throat.

Clause backed down and covered her ears. "Eww! That's disgusting!" He got even louder. "Fine! I'm going. But remember what I said. Keep your distance." She began walking off.

"Hey Clause!" Leo yelled out.

"What?!" She turned only to hear a loud gulping noise. "Your repulsive!" She stormed off, her little sheep following behind her.

"That was so gross." Russel shook his head.

Ed couldn't help but laugh. "But funny. I take it that's the 'Clause' you were referring to."

Leo nodded. "Yeah...that's probably not the last we've heard of her." He turned back to Ed and Russel. "Anyway, back to what we were talking about before we were so rudely interrupted. Want to go with us? It's for the whole weekend. Aria said that she'd be going too, along with Bunny. We got separate tents just in case the folks are worried about anything 'bad' happening." He did little quotation marks in the air with his fingers at the mention of the word 'bad'.

Ed nodded. "I'm sure they'll have no problem with it, but I do have to check with them first."

"That's cool." Leo smiled.

* * *

"Your last name." Clause began, yet again, trying to capture Al's attention. "What nationality is it?" 'Hohenheim' wasn't a very common last name, so she _was_ justified in asking about it. 

"Oh, it's German. My parents are originally from Germany. Actually, mom's parents lived in this country, moved to Germany and mom was born there. When she grew up and met dad, they decided to move back here for work, where Ed and I were born and raised." He smiled. "If you ever meet my mom and dad someday, you'll notice that they still have a bit of an accent."

"What part of Germany?" Winry inquired.

Al smiled. It was one of the very few responses he got from her all lunch, and time was growing short. "Munich."

Winry nodded. "That's cool, my parents and I visited there two years ago, it's a really nice place."

Al's eyes widened. "Wow, really? Do you travel a lot?"

She nodded. "Travel? No, I just dragged all over the world with them. I'd much rather stay here."

Clause looked offended. "You got to go to Cypress a few years back. I'm jealous."

Winry raised an eyebrow. "I'll see if you can go in my place this year, I really don't want to visit Japan."

"Japan?" Al exclaimed. "Why not?"

She referenced her hair. "I'm tall, blond, blue eyed, and pale skin, I'll feel so out of place." Five foot six wasn't too tall by their country's standards, but in Japan, she would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Oh well, I'm sure you'll find plenty of places to shop to keep your mind of your freakish height." Clause discarded what she said. "Anyway, lunch is almost over, we should show Al to his next class."

Winry nodded. "English right? It's in the art room, we'll show you where it's at. Come on."

Alphonse's mood brightened. Winry was opening up more and more, he was really hoping to go out with her sometime after school.

"This is where I should go." Clause spoke up before they moved. "I'm on the other side of the school, I don't want to have to sit at the front, I should get there early." She smiled at Al. "See you later, Al."

"See ya'." He waved and immediately turned to face Winry. "Let's go." The other girls had taken off behind Clause, leaving Al and Winry alone; aside from all the other people in the hall, which wasn't a whole lot. "Where is the art room?"

Winry began walking. "Behind the stage. It doubles as storage when we have plays at the school, but it's an art room the rest of the time."

Al followed behind her, silently for a few seconds, but then quickly piped up. "What are you doing after practice?"

She looked over her shoulder briefly. "Why do you want to know?" She asked before turning back.

"Well." He began. "I was wondering if you wanted to go get something to eat at the mall. I'm still not familiar with the set up...and I was hoping you could help me out." He said with a self-satisfied grin.

Winry shook her head. "Sorry, I have a previous engagement."

"That's cool." Al was unshaken, he figured that she was still a little shy around '_the new boy_', so he nodded. "I do want to invite you out somewhere sometime. So next time you're not busy--"

"I'll have to see." She kind of cut him off and turned around. "Here it is." She pointed up the stairs. "The regular English class is in room 202 most of the time, but that room is taken up by one of the school committee's for now, so the teacher will tell you when it changes back, ok?"

He nodded. "Yeah, great." For some reason, Winry's instruction was not only straight forward, but it was kind of scary. This was probably the reason for her being the captain of the cheerleading team and still only being in grade ten. She, from what he gathered from the girls talking, completely overthrew the last team head, and got win after win for their school in the competitions. Only three months into the school year and already at the top of her game, it was no wonder the girls followed her so loyally, and was a well respected team captain at that. "Thanks."

"Sure." With that, she walked off, not letting him get another word in.

Walking down the hall that lined the gym, she rounded the corner only to bump into Edward who was on his way to chemistry in room 101, thus knocking the binder he was carrying under his arm. "Sorry." She said as she picked it up and handed it to him.

He nodded. "That's ok." And he began walking around her when he stopped. "Winry." He called out to her, as she too was walking away. "I almost forgot." Ed wanted to see if her personality was different from the other girls like Russel and Leo said it was. It was only a small test, but it was worth a shot.

"Yes?" She walked back up to him.

Ed had looked the lab over and noticed some errors in it and was going to point them out to her. Removing the papers from his binder, he handed them to her. It was then that he actually caught a good look at her face. She had really pretty blue eyes, much like his own, and a really nice face, he was then stuck for words; he really was no good talking to girls.

"What is this?" She took the papers from his hand. "My bio lab? Where did you get this?"

Ed stuttered. "Y-you dropped it-it in the lunch room." His words were jumbled.

She smiled. "Thanks...was that all you needed?" She smiled sweetly.

He blushed and shook his head. "Well...I...It's uh. Just that, the uh...lab."

Winry frowned and took his shoulder and, with her free hand, gave him a swift knock in the forehead, not too rough though. "Confidence! Show some." She said with a smirk and rested to a position with her fists on her hips. "Start again."

Ed was shocked, he didn't much like being hit, but he knew she meant well. Taking a deep breath. "I noticed a few errors on your lab and wanted to help you fix them." He said in one fell swoop. He cringed and waited for her to laugh.

"Ok." She said with a nod.

"What?? Really?" He was really expecting her to laugh in his face or even brush him off, not to accept his help.

"I said, ok. I'm no good at bio, but I have to take it. Are you busy after school? You could show me after my cheerleading practice today." Winry asked with a smile.

Ed was nearly in shock. "Of course...great." He nodded. "Is the library ok? We'll need a printer to print off a good copy."

"Sure. I'll see you after practice, it's only for a half hour today, so you won't have to wait too long...is that ok?" She was quite polite to him, he was surprised to say the least.

Giving her a nod, he smiled. "Fine. I kind of wanted to look around this place anyway. I'll see you then." He waved and smiled.

She smiled in return. "Right. See you."

Ed held his binder tightly to his chest and sighed deeply. That went a whole lot better than his introduction at the beginning of the day. He was relieved; but with all that out of the way, he continued to his class.

* * *

Oooh, the lies. :P 

Good news though, I've already got chapter four started. XD  
Review please.


	4. Episode 4 Confrontation

Yet another chapter. What can I say, I'm really on a role with this one! XD

* * *

**_Chapter 4 - Confrontation_**

* * *

"And she wants you to help her after school?" Leo spoke quietly whilst sitting next to Edward in chemistry. They didn't even realize that they had second last period together. "Are you going to go?" He asked with a bit of regret.

Ed nodded as he feigned paying attention to the teacher. "She was really nice when she asked, and I really don't mind showing her."

Leo peeked at Ed's schedule that was laying on the table next to his work. "Wait...you aren't even in bio this semester..."

He shrugged. "Doesn't mean I'm not good at it. Besides, it's only to do with the organization of the lab, not really any of the content. From the due date written on the top of it, it's due tomorrow. So she needs to get it done."

He couldn't help but be a little concerned. "Don't think too much of her asking to help, she might just be using you. Trying to get in good with the plastics is pointless for people like us." He stopped and realized what he just said. "No offense or anything."

Ed couldn't help but smirk. "No worries, I know what you mean. I'm all too use to not fitting in with the popular crowd...not that I really want to anyway. You guys seem nice enough, I think I'll count my blessings."

He smiled at his new friend. "Thanks man." Leo went back to listening to the teacher and her explanation of mole conversions. "When are we ever going to use this stuff?"

The blond boy shrugged. "Not too sure, but I think it's because if we ever go into a profession that requires this sort of thing, though computers will most likely be doing all the work, it's best to have an understanding of what it is your doing. It makes you remember it better."

"But if we have computers, what's the point of knowing how to do mole conversions on your own?" He raised a good point.

"You give someone a graphing calculator and I'm sure they can push the buttons and make graphs come up, but that won't mean anything unless they understand what they're looking at. Same goes for chemistry." Ed raised a counter-point.

Giving it a second to process, Leo nodded. "I never thought about it like that before." Allowing a few more minutes of silence to pass with the teacher harping on about how it needed to be exactly 6.023 X 1023 or else it wouldn't work, running his fingers through his slicked back black hair. "You aren't interested in her, are you?"

Ed rolled his eyes. "It's my first day, I'm not even going to bother looking for a girlfriend so soon. Especially since I haven't even met many people yet. I'm sure I'll find someone I like eventually, but for now, I'll just keep my options open."

He nodded. "Yeah, besides, cheerleaders are to be left to the jocks, it's the way the world works. You don't want to mess with the delicate balance. Plastics are the kind of people it's best not to get too close too, you'll only get hurt in the end."

Ed couldn't help but agree. "I know. Get too close to the sun, and all you'll do is burn up." He paused for a moment. "Where did I hear that before?" He turned his attention to Leo who, in turn, shrugged. Ed was stumped, normally he remembered where memorable quotes came from, but for some reason he was stuck. Shrugging it off, he went back to his work.

* * *

There seemed to be a lot of things that Ed never understood. The hierarchy of high school, the need to want to fit in for the soul purpose of impressing others, or the more obscure behavior of the need to kick in the bathroom stall doors. Three of four stalls had a big dent in the door. He really didn't see it necessary to take any amount of anger that he might have had on a bathroom door, but apparently, someone else did. Walking up to the sink, he turned on the water and allowed his hands to test it.

Another thing he didn't understand, why it took so long for the water to get hot in big buildings. Maybe it was because the hot water heaters were all on the first floor, but that only made him think as to why they didn't put one of the upper levels. He really did think of useless things at times, but at least he didn't waste other's time with his musings.

While being lost in thought he neglected to her someone else enter the restroom. "Hey, fancy running into you here." The first boy said, the other two following right behind him.

Ed then turned his attention to the one's who just waked into the bathroom. "Hi...do I know you?" He was rather confused, and now, slightly nervous. The older boy, looking to be at least in grade twelve, possibly a post grad, got uncomfortably close.

"Not really. But we did hear what you did to a friend of ours." He slammed his hand up against the mirror behind Edward, nearly coming nose to nose with him. "What's your deal anyway kid?"

Being severely confused, but still thinking straight, he responded politely as possible. "I'm not sure what you mean, this is my fris--"

"Don't play dumb! And definitely don't piss us off." He grabbed Ed by the scruff and threw him against the bathroom door, thus denting it. Aside from the initial pain that he was feeling, he now figured out as to why there were dents in the doors.

"What the hell are you doing?! I didn't do anything! It's my first day!" Ed tried to stand but received yet another shove, knocking him back against the same wall the toilet was on; fortunately for him the lid was down.

"We're going to show the little freshmen where his place is." Lining up a punch, he landed it square in Ed's cheek.

Quickly recovering from the shock, Ed tried to make a swing in return, but was unable to move his arm due to the blatant lack of room. Not having enough time to react otherwise, he was met with another punch in the face. Fed up, Edward kicked the upper part of the guy's leg as hard as he could, and then, in the moment of confusion, Ed slid beneath the guy halfway, wrapped his arm around his waist, picked him up using the strength in his legs and flawlessly, flung him over his back, making him land, upside down, on the toilet.

Trying to make a break for it, he was stopped by the other two guys who came in the restroom behind the first one. "I don't think so." They both grabbed him beneath the arms and held him tightly.

Ed flailed as he tried to free himself. "Let me go!"

Finally recovering from the hip toss, the other sophomore stood up and exited the stall. "You like throwing people into toilets? How about we throw you into one, head first." He held open the stall door as the other two guys hauled Ed towards it. The first guy, the tall one with the short brown hair, went behind Ed to grab his feet, in order to tilt him upside down.

"A swirly? Come on guys, that's so cliche." Truth be told, Ed hated messing his hair up. It was difficult enough keeping it long and looking as nice as it did, so dunking it in stagnant water, didn't seem like a good idea.

"Cliche, but really effective!" Finally managing to tilt Edward upside down, he began to flail wildly.

" Put me down!" He did his best to move and squirm and twist, trying to break one of their grips on him. "Ficken Sie ab! Lassen Sie mich los!"

"What?" One of the boys holding his arm was distracted by the strange words that came flying into his ears.

"Ha!" Ed finally managed to free and arm, dislodge his other captured arm and, with grace, he placed his hands on either side of the bathroom stall and essentially, walked up the stall with his arms, one careful, but quick, jump at a time.

"The hell?!" The guy holding his legs was amazed to see Ed's acrobatic skills at work and didn't realize that Ed had completely left any of their grasps. "Get down here, we're not finished with you."

Ed balanced in the small space between the top of the stall and the ceiling. "I don't think so." Ed was just out of the reach of the perpetrators, and now, safe from harm. He could see one of the boys trying to grab at his ankles. "Scheißen Sie Kopf."

"I don't care if you can speak French! Get down here!" He swung at Ed again.

"What's going on in here?" An older man's voice bellowed from the bathroom doorway. It was none other than the principal.

"Oh, uh, sir...nothing." With that, the three of the boys exited the bathroom, their tails, so to speak, between their legs.

Ed quickly dismounted the stall and sighed in relief. "Thank you sir."

Mr. Lang placed both his arms behind his back and looked down at Edward. "It's your first day and you're already starting fights, this is not acceptable."

Ed shook his head and waved his hands in front of him. "Oh no. It's nothing like that. I was just using the bathroom and then the three of them jumped me, they said that I did something to one of their friends and I didn't even know what they were talking about because I never even really met anyone yet and--" Ed rambled on only to be stopped by the principal holding up his hand to silence him.

"Ok...so you didn't start any of this?" He asked calmly.

Ed took a deep breath. "No sir." He said with his head lowered.

"Fine." Mr. Lang smiled. "I'll be sure to talk to those boys later, I've been having trouble with them recently anyway. Just head back to class...you're alright though? Your face looks kind of red." He said, looking at the reddish spot on Ed's cheek.

Ed raised his hand to his face. Not wanting to cause any more friction between him and whoever it was that attacked him, he shook his head. "I'm alright, I just got bumped at lunch, nothing big."

He could tell that the principal knew he was lying, but he nodded anyway. "Fine. But if you need some ice, just go to the teacher's lounge, I'm sure they'll help you out."

Edward smiled. "Thank you sir."

With that, the older man went to exit the bathroom, but stopped short and turned around. "Oh and, watch the language from now on Ed, ok?"

Ed blushed in embarrassment. "Right, sorry sir." He nodded and watched him exit the bathroom. It wasn't every day that someone around him knew how to speak German, so he figured it was ok to use in lieu of English profanity. He would have to be careful from there on out though, not that he knew a lot of German, just simple stuff; his father was straight from Munich, so it was only to be expected that he picked some amount of it up along the way.

He smiled; the principal seemed like a good guy, someone he could talk to if need be. And if the actions that took place that day went on again, he would have to talk to him again. Though Ed could defend himself, he would have just preferred to be left alone. He shook the bad scenario from his head and proceeded to wash his hands again, the top of the bathroom stalls were really dusty and messed his hands up.

* * *

An end of the day announcement came on and told everyone to return to their home room class. Ed walked up the hall with Leo and Russel along side him. They laughed at something in passing and then finally walked into the classroom to see Al and most of the rest of the class crowded around, all talking about nothing in piticullair. Ed walked past the front part of the class only to be spoken to by, none other than, Clause.

"So, what's your problem Ed?" She glared at him.

Ed stopped and looked at her, sitting next to Al on the desk. He raised an eyebrow. "People keep talking around me and thinking I did things I probably didn't, and it's getting annoying. Why do you ask?"

She spun around and faced him head on. "I mean why do you hate your brother so much?"

"What?" Al said.

"What?" Ed followed up. They both looked at each other, confused as they could be. "I don't hate Al, what gave you that idea?" Leo and Russel stood behind him, silently, watching the scene unfold.

"No one gives someone a cut like that out of love. So why'd you do it?" She stood up, hands on her waist, head cocked in a saucy manner.

"Cut? He didn't cut me." Al leaned back, and talked to Clause.

"What?" She said in confusion looking halfway over her shoulder at him.

Al sighed and stood up, he then walked next to his brother. "So I take it you didn't tell them." He turned and faced the rest of the class, who looked on in confusion.

"No...I thought we weren't going to." Ed smirked. "But then again, if we don't, everyone's going to think things that aren't real."

Leo sat against the teacher's desk off on the far left of the room, away from the door. "Wait, Ed, don't you have a scar that Al gave you?"

Ed held up his right arm, revealing his scar. "Yeah."

Al held up his left arm, right along side Ed's, matching it nearly perfectly. "I have one too."

Winry face palmed. "Oh, I get it." She smiled and some of the other kids looked at her, wondering what she 'got'.

"Normally we don't tell anyone about the scars, because it usually freaks people out. So we decided to just keep it under wraps. But since you guys are so persistent." He placed his scar up against Al's, they fit together.

"I told you, we're identical twins, didn't I? We were joined at birth." Al smiled and removed his arm. "The scar is the result in us being separated." He lowered it to his side.

Clause immediately felt like a complete douchebag. "You what? Why don't you look...identical then?"

Ed smirked as he too lowered his arm. "Al dyes his hair a darker color and keeps it short, while keep mine long and it's natural color. I also wear contacts that make my eyes green. It makes us easier to tell us apart. So yeah, you were wrong, and you made a complete ass out of yourself and gave me a bruised cheek in the process, I hope you're happy." Ed relaxed and walked to his seat in the front of the room. "Now would you mind leaving me alone?"

Al glanced at his brother. "Bruise? She hit you?"

He shook his head. "No, of course not. She got a few of her buddies in grade twelve to attack me. Luckily for me the principal intervened."

He looked at her, completely disgusted. "Don't try and solve my problems, if Ed's bugging me, I'll beat him up myself."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Like you could." Al looked away from Ed, pretending he didn't hear what he said.

Clause lowered her vision. "Sorry..."

Al shook his head. "No matter..." He turned around. "What are we here for anyway?"

Leo piped up. "There's some handout about the health center that just opened up. Bunny said that we'll be able to use it by Friday; that's actually what she was gone for all lunch."

"Indeed, it is about the health clinic." Mrs. Curtis smiled as she entered the room. "Here, I've got to get going, so make sure to close the door behind you, ok?" She handed the small stack of papers to Leo who was sitting on her desk. "And get off that." She shooed him away. Walking over to the door, she turned her key in the lock and jiggled the knob, making sure it was locked. "I trust you guys." With that said, she left.

Leo shrugged. "She's always in a rush." He looked back to the class and took four of the papers. "I'll take one back for Aria, she'll probably be in tomorrow, but oh well." He handed the rest of the stack to Al, who in turn passed them around to the rest of the people. Leo handed one to Ed and Russel.

"What is it exactly?" Ed glanced over the paper. It was telling about the health clinic that opened in the school, and how it was supplying the students with condoms, birth control pill, pregnancy tests and help with addictions. All free of charge.

"Anyway, we should go." Russel piped up. "You coming Ed?"

Ed snapped out of his daze of reading his paper. "Actually, I'm staying for a little while, I'll talk to you later." Over lunch, he had gotten their cell numbers, it was amazing how useful technology was.

Leo nodded. "Oh right, later then." He waved and set off.

Everyone got up and exited the classroom, and as Winry walked by, Ed made eye contact with her. Hopeful that what Leo had said wasn't true. Quickly breaking the eye contact, she said nothing and walked right past. Ed watched as the second last person out of the room shut the lights off. Standing up, he headed for the door to go to the library to wait, possibly for someone who wasn't going to show up at all.

* * *

Normally I'd say 'sorry' at this point for being so late with my updates...but I'm not late...hell, I'm quite early. XP

Come on, tell me what you think. Even if it's something as simple as "update soon" or "Go die in a hole" or "I like it" or "Nice". Something, anything, just let me know you're alive! (...on second thought, not that second one)


	5. Episode 5 An Expectation

_OMFG!!!_

If I carefully set my laptop on the arm of my coach, I pick up a wandering internet signal. I'm so happy right now...I HAVE 5 FUCKING CHAPTERS WRITTEN UP ON PAPER!!!

Yeah...depressing, I have to type it up off of paper...I hate my handwriting...oh well, here's your next chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 5 - An Expectation**

* * *

The library was huge, comperable to that of most college's; not as big, but pretty close. Ed dropped his bookbag off on the back of one of the chairs that adorn the central most part of the library. There were two sets of stairs that bent and went to the second level where, from thesign allong the banister, said that it consisted of refrence books. There was another set of stairs on the second level that was under construction. he smiled, it was nice to see that the school's budget was in capable hands who weren't squandering funds.

He took his chemistry book and began his homework knowing full well that he might have to wait a while, it was best to get his work out of the way before Winry showed up.

Blond hair, blue eyes, popular, the cheerleading team's captain to boot; she was something that, even if he wanted to, he would never be able to obtain. Aside from the 'blond hair' and 'blue eyes' bit. edward was never terribly fussy when it came to girls, he never had a girlfriend before, but he did want someone who was pretty and shared his intrestes.

Coming to the realization that he probably wouldn't find anyone like that till college, he opted out of the girlfriend scene and focused more on his own studies.

Alphonse was another story through. He never dated seriously before high school, but he did go out with his fair share of girls. Ed didn't talk to his brother about his personal life, so he didn't know for sure if he went _all the way_ or not with any of his lady friends. doing his best not to assume the worst, Ed made up his mind that he believed his brother didn't do such things. Though he was prone to being wrong at times. He hoped this wasn't one of those times.

Ed sat back in his chair, any amount of homework he had, completed. satisfied all was well, he tugged a book from his knapsack, flipped to his bookmark and began reading.

Nearly an hour passed and Winry failed to show. Heaving a sigh he placed the bookmark back in his newly attained location amongst the many pages and shut it with a dull thud, then placed the hard cover book back in his bookbag. Edward hating guessing the worst about people, but he was right, Winry didn't show.

Lifting the strap over his shoulder, he carried his things to the door of the library and exited the large white washed room.

It wasn't a romantic kind of love, it was the kind of love he felt toward his little brother, Rick, but Aria still held a special place in his heart. Leo gave a brisk knock on the door, then awaited an answer.

"Coming." He heard from the opposite side of the heavy framed door. With a quick jerk, the swung open reveling a short, red haired girl. "Hey Leo." She smiled, the remenants of tears on her cheeks. "Come in. Don't go in the dining room though, mom just cleaned the carpet." She spoke as she stepped out of the way. "It's still wet." Aria smiled.

"Alright...it's good to see that you're in a better mood. Oh, there was a handout today, so I brought one from my homeroom for you." Leo entered the main hall of Aria's home and removed his shoes before entering the living room. He looked about the room to see unfamiliar furniture. "Uh, didn't your mom just buy a new living room set at the beginning of summer?"

Aria shrugged. "She got all paranoied and thought that it wasn't good enough to impress her new toy, so she threw it away." Leo became confused. "..I'm kidding, it's downstairs."

His expression brightened. "You mean, no more awkward beanbag chairs?" He dropped his bookbag on the coach and relaxed.

"Yup." She smiled. "Now game nights will be a little more comfortable. Not that it matters this weekend." Aria rubbed her hands together. "Camping trip." She sing-songed the words.

Leo nodded. "About that, good news. We got a couple new students today, Edward and Alphonse Hohenheim. Al seems about as bright as a bag of hammers, but Ed's pretty cool. He's gonna come with us this weekend in lieu of my irritating little cousin." He gave her a hopeful expression. "You don't mind, do you?"

She seemed a little worried. "You'll keep me safe, it's alright."

He nodded. "Of course. But I don't think anything bad will happen, he seems pretty level headed. Not like what's his face...speaking of face, let's see."

Begrudgingly she moved her bangs away from the right side of her head, reveling yellow tinted skin on the upper portion of the right side of her forehead. "The bruise is gone, but it still looks pretty groady."

Leo unzipped his bookbag and tugged the note out from in between some books. "Kind of...but your hair looks good like that, you should leave it." Normally her hair was pinned back behind her ears, so it looked nice to him, in her face a little.

She flicked the long strands in her eyes up and allowed the to fall back in place. "I guess." She leaned against the frame of the door and reached for the paper that Leo wos holding out to her. "Oh yeah., where's Russ at?"

Rolling his eyes, he sat back on the new sofa and watched Aria read the paper. "He's getting his hair dyed, green I think. The jerk."

"Jerk?" Aria was confused.

"Not really." Leo ran his fingers through his jet black hair. "I'm just pissed I can't dye mine. It's too dark, it won't bleach right. Though I'll look on the bright side, when Christmas rolls around, you and him standing next to one aother will look nice and festive." He smirked.

"I'm so sure." She laughed.

* * *

"Winry, are you sure you're ok?" Al followed along behind her.

She whipped around, the ice pack held neatly on her lip. "Stop asking me that." She snapped. "For the tenth time, I'm fine. Now go, I have something to do."

He held his hands up in defense. "Sure, sorry." Al turned on his heel and walked back down the hallway toward where the rest of his friends were waiting, flustered while he did so.

Allowing the bag of ice to cool her sore lip, she continued up the stairs to the library. She was hoping that Ed hadn't left just yet. Making her way around another corner, she stepped right in front of the on in question. Jerking to a hault, one in which caused her ice pack to slip out of her hand, she sighed in relief.

Quickly catching the ice bag before it fell, he held it up. "And here I thought you forgot about me." He handed her the cold pack. "What happened? ...if you don't mind my asking."

She sighed and placed the pack back on her face. "Clause tried to to a move, while showing off, and smashed me in the mouth with the back of her heel. I nearly blacked out when I hit the ground; but here I am, if you still want to help me out." She smiled.

"No problem, I've got nothing better to do." He turned and headed back to the library, Winry following close behind

* * *

"She said earlier that she was getting help with Bio. That's probably where she's going." Clause brushed off Al's inquirey as to Winry's whereabouts. "We're heading out to the mall, you should come with." She tugged at Al's arm.

Giving and sigh and a frustrated folding of his arms, he nodded. "Why not?" he said with feigned enthusiasim.

* * *

Really, really sorry for the late update!  
The only internet access I have at home tends to not show up and work never offers me enough time.

I know the chapter was a little short, but it's hard for me to gauge how many words I write in my binder without the aid of a 'word count' feature. x-x (No spell check for now either, sorry again. ;P)

Anyway, if you're still out there, thanks for sticking with me and I'll update this fic the second I get chapter 6 off of my friend's laptop.

Love you guys! Later!

-Eve Nightingale


	6. Episode 6 Trust Game

I feel it necessary to redeem myself and update REALLY soon...just so you guys know I'm still kicking.  
So here's chapter 6 for you.

* * *

**Chapter 6 - Trust Game**

* * *

"All the information to the specific headers needs to be spaced properly." Ed hit the tab button twice, spacing the text over so it was no longer beneath the subject header. 

"Oh." Winry rested her hands on her knees as she glanced at the glowing computer screen over his shoulder. "No wonder I never got good marks for my labs. Thanks Ed." She smiled as she rested a hand on his shoulder.

He blushed as soo as he felt the initial contact. "I-uh...sure, anytime." His voice shook a little, upon clearing his throat, he rose from the short computer chair, not before hitting ctrl and 'p', followed up by the enter button. "Now, where is this going to print?"

"Over at the librarian's desk." She walked ove and rounded the corner desk the enclosed the librarian's chair. Though she expected all to go smoothly, her skirt caught a plastic paper crate, currently holding blank paper, and sent it crashing to the floor in a mess of white sheets. "Shit." She sighed.

"Oh, let me help with that." He smiled as he approached the papers scattered on the floor.

"Thanks." Winry said as she tugged the thread look, responsible for the accident in the first place, off her skirt.

They both crouched down and began gathering up the unused papers. Ed peeked up at Winry hunched over and got a clear view down the front of her cheerleading uniform. Feeling his face grow warm, he quickly averted his line of vision, a slight smirk on his face. Not that he didn't like what he saw, he just didn't want to get smacked for being a perv. He tried not to be a perv, at least not openly.

"You would think that with new uniforms they would be flawless." She rolled her eyes. "Price and quality really don't go hand in hand." She picked up the paper holder and turned to face the printer. "I'm leaving this here, it makes more sence next to the printer anyway."

Looking up, he was met with Winry fixing and alligning the plastic container against the wall, thus giving him a clear view up her skirt. Standing up, but not at attention, he held out the papers. "It was just one string. Other than that, I think they're perfect."

It was a vibrant green color skirt with a criss cross design on the front of the shirt in gold and white that let the neck fall in a V shape that led down into the skirt. Winry snickered. "I guess what they lack in functionality, they make up for with stroaking material." She reached out and took hold of the papers, taking her time to brush against his hand, an extra second to make a little longer contact.

He blinked a few times as he handed over the papers. "..." Seeming quite confused, he nodded on impulse. "Yeah..."

She smirked. "Figured as much...oh, before I forget..." She looked around and made direct eye contact again. "You'll have to forgive the front, ok?" She ran her hand down the length of his arm as she walked by. "See you tomorrow."

"Bye." Ed waved as he watched Winry leave the library. Walking back over to his seat to gather up his things, he pondered what she meant by 'forgive the front'. Maybe she was putting up a front while she was around him. Thinking a bit deeper into it, maybe she was talking about a front she put up around everyone else. "...nah." He mounted his bookbag on his back and began to take his leave. Just then, it hit him.

"..." What she meant by 'stroaking material', became clear as a bell. He blushed from head to toe, he had agreed with her when she said it, he agreed that he could get off to her uniform, terribly embarassing for him. Heaving a sigh, he was relieved that he didn't get smacked, or even yelled at. That kept close in mind, he left the library and began his walk home.

* * *

"It's at the provincial park, out the country side." Ed did his best to plead with his mother. "It's only for Friday and Saturday night, we'll be heading back Sunday morning." His hands clasped together. "Please?" 

Trisha sighed as she put her paintbrush to her half covered cnavase. "...Who's going?" She questioned with intent.

Edward pretended as if his attention was somewhere else, just to give the impression that is wasn't a big deal that two girls would be going. "Leo, Russell...also Bunny and Aria." He said the girls names rather distantly.

Placing a few more careful stroaks, she laid the paint brush down; she painted frequently, whenever she wasn't on stage. "Did you run this by your father?"

He smiled. "Yes; but then he began going on about how his word, regardless of who I asked first, would pale in comparison to yours. And then he trailed off talking about how he had a bias because I'm a boy and something else about equality. Then I got bored and came to you...so can I go?" He explained with a smile on his face.

She couldn't help but laugh; Von did have a bad habit of rambeling on at times. "I trust you Ed, so I'll say yes. But if I fond out that something went on that shouldn't have, I won't be able to trust you so easily again. Understand?" Trisha was quite serious as she spoke.

He rolled his eyes. "I've never had a girlfriend before mom; what makes you think anything's going to happen in four days?" Seeing as how he was going to meet Aria and Bunny tomorrow, he would only have known them for four days come the camping trip. Five, including Saturday.

"I don't necessarily mean that; I know you're smarter than that. I'm talking about drinking, or smoking. I don't want you-"

He quickly held up his hands in defense. "What?! No, no. That's not what this trip' about. We just met, so it's a good was to get to know each other."

She smiled. "Let's hope so." She hugged him.

He hugged her in return. "Thanks mom."

* * *

"So then I was like, 'what the hell' and you know those boots I have with the tall heels? Yeah, well I stepped on her phone and snapped in it half." Clause laughed along with everyone else. "Dumb bitch, she should have known no one liked her. She shouldn't have showed up at the party anyway. I was so funny, she started crying and then walked home. Serves her right for looking at my boyfriend." Clause sipped her pop. 

"None of us liked her either." One of the other girls piped up. "I think she moved."

"Yeah." She nodded. "Too bad, I broke it off with that loser the next day. She could have had him." She glanced over to Al who was talking with a few members of the current basketball team. "Lucky for the guys, I'm single now." Slightly frustrated that Al didn't notice what she had said, she was about to speak up when a black mass moved into her line of vision.

"Is his hair green?" Winry apparently saw the same thing as Clause. After getting help from Ed, she hopped a cab to the mall to eat with her group.

"Eww. Yes it is." Clause saw Russell, with his newly dyed hair, wlaking along side Leo and Aria. "Oh, hey." Clause motioned for everyone to gather in close. "See the girl with the red hair, she's got black streaks in it, there's a reason she wasn't in school."

Winry thought for a second. "She was sick?"

Clause shook her head. "No, she just got out of juvinile hall! She just broke up with her boyfriend, she like, always put out for him, but then she changed her mind and didn't want to do it anymore, so he raped her." At this point, she had everyone's attention. "A few days later, she finally snapped, freaked out and stabbed him. And what's more, see how she's always wearing something that covers her arms? She cuts herself there and drinks her own blood."

Alphonse's eyes widened. "Really?" She looked happy enough as she walked and talked with her two friends, the same two guys Ed was hanging out with. As he thought about it, most crazy people seemed normal most of the time.

"Probably not." Winry said under her breath. Al, who was sitting next to her, was the only one who heard.

"How do you know for sure?" Al leaned in close. "It's better to be safe than sorry. You should only trust people you know mostly everything about." He looked concerned.

She noded. "Right..." Winry picked up a few fries from her tray and munched on them. Glancing briefly at 'the kids in black', she saw Aria break off from the two guys and head into the bathroom.

"There's no way it's a rumor, a few of the guys saw her drinking her own blood in the hallway." Clause watched her walk into the bathroom. "We should shake her up a little. Come on." She began to stand up.

"Wait." Winry said, standing up fully at her seat. "Let me go, just me, I'm better at these sorts of things."

"Cool, go for it." Clause lounged in the long cushioned seat. "Don't let her bite you."

Winry walked over to the bathroom and entered into the air conditioned room. It was mostly kids her age who hung out at the mall, so she failed to understand why everything was wet in that piticular washroom all the time. It was te main reason she hated using public restrooms. She turned to see Aria fixing her hair at the sink. "Hey." Winry began. "Aria, right?" She made eye contact with her by proxy of the mirror.

Looking up through her bangs that lightly covered one half of her face, she nodded. "Yeah."

"Mind if I ask you something?" Winry turned her back to the mirror and leaned against the counter.

"Go ahead." Aria was skeptical, but decided to play along anyway.

"I'm a little concerned about you. The girls seem to think you cut your arms up. I think it's a lie...would you mind if I took a look at them? Because if you're hurting yourself, you should really talk to someone." Winry did her best not to be condesending, but given the people she kept around her, their was of speaking rubbed off on her.

Aria looked quite offended. "I'm not hurting myself." With that said, she tugged the sleeves of her shirt up; holding up both her arms, she rotated them to reveal no mutulation. Aside from one scar. "And this one scar is from where I fell off the bleachers in juinor high." She quickly yanked her sleeves back down.

"Thanks. Sorry to bother you, but I needed to know." Winry stood up.

"I want to make it clear; the only reason I showed you my arms is because you werepolite about it **not** because I need to prove anything to your friends, or you, ok?" She stated in a harsh manner. Normally she was a little more gentle with her words, but since she was given nothing but grief since grade four from people like her, she had little respect for the 'plastics'.

Winry nodded. "Right...what about your boyfriend though, what's the story with him? If you don't mind my asking." Hoping that her 'polite' attitude would help to divulge more information.

"I do mind." With that, she exited the bathroom, leaving Winry standing there.

* * *

See, I still exist!

And really, I wouldn't mind a review. Even if it's just a quick nice word, let's hard what you think.  
All the stuff with Aria in there, I doubt anyone isn't curious with what I'm doing with her...hehe...HAHAAHAHAH...ahem.

So come on guys, be a sport, review for me?  
Thanks.


	7. Episode 7 Friends and Family

Chapter 7 -

CHAPTER 7!!! OMFG!!! I love making Ed and Al living in this world, they kick ass. XD

* * *

**Chapter 7 - Friends and Family**

* * *

"Why would she even ask me something like that? And how did she know about my boyfriend...ex-boyfriend rather." Aria sat there, confused, as she ate her burger.

Leo shrugged. "Not sure. Maybe one of his friends said something. Don't worry about it, I'm sure it's nothing."

"It probably is though...and so it begins." Russell rolled his eyes as he saw two girls from the 'popular section' approached them.

"Nothing good can come from this." Aria laid her food down and turned her attention to the girls standing next to her. "Yes?"

The one on the right began. "Did you kill my cat? Everyone knows you're, like, a vampire. So why'd you do it?"

She sat there, mouth ajar, staring blankly. Leo piped up before Aria could get a word in edge wise. "What?! She loves animals, hell, she doesn't even eat meat. Why would she kill your cat?"

"So she could drink it's blood." The second girl chimed in. "Freaks."

"Did you not hear him? I'm vegetarian, that means I don't eat meat! Blood included." She flashed her reciept, showing she was indeed eating a veggi burger. "See? Gah. Why do I bother leaving the house?" Aria muttered to herself.

"So you don't like sunlight either then?" The first girl snipped again. "Stay away from my other pets, weirdo."

Aria was stunned. "I-...never mind." She rested her chin on her hand as the two girls left the table side. "Why are people so stupid?" She heaved a sigh.

Russell shrugged. "It uses too much concentration to have intelligent thought. If she actually started now, it would break the concentration needed for her to suck in that gut of hers. Try as she might."

Leo scoffed. "You noticed that too?" He laughed. "I know it's hard for some people to lose weight, but seriously, if you have the money to by name brands like that, you have the money to buy bigger jeans. She looked like a sausage stuffed into a little casing."

Aria snickered. "That's mean."

He smirked. "You can't be mad if you're laughing at it too. Besides, you know what else is mean? Accusing 'you' of eating a cat."

Aria pointed a finger. "I didn't eat it, I just drank it's blood." She laughed.

Leo and Russell both followed suit and laughed as well. Leo waved a hand at her. "Right, right; my bad."

* * *

Aria sat back on her bed, a little bunny in her lap, as she fed her small pieces of carrots. "People suck." She said to her, stroaking her fur gently. "...Well, not all of them. Leo, Russ and Paninia are great, Ed sounds cool, but those other people suck."

The small light brown rabbit nibbled away at it's food and listened to it's owner complain about the usual. "Aria, dear." A voice echoed in from the hall.

"I'm in my room." She called out to her mother's voice resonating in the halls.

She pushed open the door and saw Aria on her bed with the little animal sitting on her skirt, which acted line a hammoc, draped over her knees. "Put that back in the shed, he's going to mess up your cloths." Reanna said as she gave the creature a cruel glance.

"Jean didn't fix the shed. Tell him to fix it tomorrow so I won't have to keep taking Nilla in. And I'm not going out tonight, so I'll just wash my cloths if I get dirty." Aria said as she flopped the bunny's ears back and forth. "Was that all you wanted?"

"No, I also wanted to tell you not to wait up for me. Jean and I are going out to the club, a good friend of mine is playing, so we won't be back till late." Seeing that Aria nodded, she was sure she understood. "And put that thing outside tonight." She said, ordered, pointing a finger at the young girl.

With a roll of her eyes, she nodded again. "Fine." She said with defeat.

Before taking her leave, she took a step towards Aria's bed. "Off topic here, Why won't you call him 'dad'? We've been together quite a while." Reanna's arms were tightly folded in front of her, her short red hair framing her face, stopping at her chin.

Aria closed her eyes and groaned. "Mom, I told you before, he's not my dad...and you've only been together for half a year now. I wouldn't go counting my chickens if I were you."

Reanna shook her head. "Why can't you just accept it? He's here to stay. Anyway, I have to go. Put that thing out before you go to bed."

Aria scowled. "Nilla." She repeated the rabbit's name.

"Nina, then. Just do it." Reanna waved and was off.

Sighing again, she pet her bunny. Jean really was a nice guy, she had nothing against him, they actually got along quite well; Aria just didn't feel comfortable with calling him 'dad'. At least not so soon after the one she called 'dad' left her and her mom so abruptly. She just didn't want that negative connotation attached to Jean. Aria was also wise to her mother's ways and didn't want to get too attached.

"I told you people suck." A few tears slipped down her face and she pet Nilla on the ears. Reaching over to her bed side table, she removed the pill bottle from beneath the lamp, popped the top and grabbed on of the little white pills. "Don't worry Nilla-bunny, I'll be ok in a little while." She tossed the little pill in her mouth and swallowed it. Replacing the piss, she smiled. "I'm glad you're here for me...but just for fun, let's go call Leo and see if I can get a drive to school tomorrow."

Nesteling the bunny in her arms, she headed off downstairs.

* * *

"So, let's hear it. Are there many pretty girls at the school?" Von inquired with a smile.

"A few." Ed reluctlantly spoke, a light blush on his cheeks.

"A few?" Al said with disbelief at his twin brother's words. "Are you kidding? The entire cheerleading team is smoking hot. I think you're blind."

"Better than being shallow." Ed snipped.

"Come on boys. It's just a question of looks, everyone's got their own opinion." Von liked taking time out at least once a week, just to see how his kids were; it was a good was of staying in touch. "Now, any nice girls there?" He loved his wife, Trisha, but he wasn't on to _not_ notice the young girls in short skirts.

"Meh." Al shrugged. "A few of the girls I met were pretty cool, but I really don't know them yet." He lounged back in the arm chair and slung one of his legs over the arm. "I'm mostly intrested in the cheerleading team's captain, Winry. From what I've been told, she's single." He smirked.

"Team captain, huh? Always with status isn't it?" He turned to Ed. "You should find yourself a girlfriend this year too, highschool is the time to really get out there and meet people. Make connections."

"I know." Ed pulled his legs up onto the coach and folded them beneath himself. "Mom actually agreed to let me go camping this weekend. This way, I'll definatly get to know people a little better."

Von pouted. "I wish I had a say in thing."

Ed looked a little worried. "Do you not wnt me to go?"

With a shake of his head, he smiled. "Don't worry about it, you can go." He said in defeat as he rose from his seat. "Anyway, your mother and I have a little more pratice to do, so I'll expect you two not to stay up all night."

"Right." Both Ed and Al spoke at the same time, right afterwards giving each other an odd glance.

That all said and done, Von headed down to the bacement to pratice with Trisha, they had a preformance the following Friday, so it was best to get in as much airtime as possible.

* * *

"Camping...I see." Al laid back on his bed, situated across the room from his brother's.

"Yeah, camping. It's where you go outside, into the woods and you sleep there...in a tent." Ed smirked. Normally, he didn't talk condecendingly to people, but it was always a treat to get a rise out of Al, who could never properly defend himself.

"I know what it is you knob. But you can't say that it's **just** going to be a camping trip. He rolled on his side and faced Ed. "Why else would you want to go?" They're going to bring booze with them, aren't they?" Al siad with a smirk. "I guess there's hope for you after all."

"I'm not drinking." He laid flat on his back, head tilted, as he spoke to Al. "Even if they did bring anything, remember, I like the straight and narrow."

"I guess I was wrong then." There was a few moments of silence and then he spoke up one more time. "Are you going to get a girlfriend this year?" He innocently questioned.

"Maybe, if I meet someone nice." He smiled, remembering that hour he spent helping Winry, but before he could say anything, Al continued.

"I want to try and get a date with Winry. She's gorgeous." Hearing no reply from Ed, he sat up. "Don't tell me you don't think she's hot."

Ed blushed. "What? Of course, she's relly pretty, but let's face it, she's way out of my league." That being said, he rolled over and faced the wall. "I'm sure I'll find someone for me."

Another few minutes passed and then Al began again. "Maybe the 'Magic' cards are stopping girls from approaching you."

"Drop it Al." Ed said with a snap in his voice.

"Just a suggestion." He rolled over. "Think about it...goodnight."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Goodnight."

"Wait!" Al shot up in his bed and glared at Ed. "You're going to hook up with one of the girls you're going camping with! That's it! Right?"

Ed groaned. "No. Why do you automatically assue the worst of me. I've got more brains that one might imagine." He sunk down into his pillow.

"What did I tell you about talking like that?" He seemed frustrated. "Never mind, stop talking and go to sleep." Once again, he laid down to go to sleep. Silent this time.

* * *

See, I still exist...again!

Sorry for the late update again. But I think I'm going to get the chance to update once a week again. A good friend of mine has a power cord that fits my lap top. Awesomeness:)

Anyway, let's get a review from some of my long tme readers...it'll encourage me to update quicker. XD I have chapter 12 finished and written down in my book.


	8. Episode 8 The Trip

There you guys go, another chapter up and ready to read.  
I know reviewing was down for a little while...but here, review on this one.  
My friend, the one who lets me use her power cord...is going back to Ontario. So, her being my only hook up, my updating will be spaced out, yet again. Unless I use a public computer...(shivers)

Anyway, seeing as how I won't be updating for a little while, you guys should leave a bunch of reviews on my fic so when I come back, I'm not 'uninspired' to write.

Come on...you know you wanna'.

* * *

**Chapter 8 - The Trip**

* * *

"I don't like long car rides." Aria said, slouched over in the front seat.

Leo looked at her, slightly worried. "Do you want me to pull over?" He reached over and rubbed her back with his right hand, his left hand still holding the wheel of the car.

"No." She groaned. "I'll be fine." Sitting back up, she looked around. "The entrance!!!" She yelled, pointing. Leo quickly jammed the air brake, causing the car to fishtail out as he spun the wheel off to the left. Screeching to a hault, they were now staring at the entrance. Aria laughed ruthfully as she held on to the dash board. "I had a feeling you were going to miss it."

"We're right in front of the entrance, aren't we?" He smiled wide as he reapplied pressure to the gas pedal, thus moving the car forward.

"I'm bringing a helmet next time, you nutcase." Bunny smirked as she kicked at the back of his chair.

"You _can_ walk home. People don't got no appreciation." He said with bad grammar, purposely.

"I'm good." She leaned back and admired the beautiful fall leaves that tried despeartly to stick to their respective trees. "So, you said this is the last few days before they close till next summer?"

Ed pulled out the pamphlete they were given a few days ago, when Leo and his mother made the reservations, outlining the events that were taking place over the weekend. "Yeah. It's actually their 10th year anniverseary, so they're going all out before winter hits." He handed the folded paper over to Paninya. "Check it out, there's fireworks and everything."

"Fireworks? Shit, this is going to kick ass." Russell smiled as he rubbed his hands together. "They're going to have a concert before hand. I love keltic music. The Cotters are playing aren't they?" He glanced over to Bunny.

Skimming the booklet, she nodded. "Yeah, right after the Rankins'."

"I've never been a big fan of Keltic. Now, you stik Flogging Molly up there and then we'll talk." Leo said as he weaved his way through the narrow road overgrown by trees; their hanging branches brushing the sides of the car.

Ed added to the conversation. "Great Big Sea is closing the show."

"What?!" Leo nearly jumped over the steering wheel. "No god damn way! Great Big Sea is, well, fuckin' great!" He smiled as he sat back in the drivers seat. "I take it back, keltic is fine." The car ful of teens got a good chuckle out of Leo's quick change of heart.

* * *

Ed reached down and gathered up a few more downed branches for the fire. They had bought a few small bundles of firewood and a bottle of kerosine to get them going, but Aria convinced them to opt out of the lighter fluid and stick with kindeling. It was better to get and keep the fire going; anyone who knew anything about lighting a fire knew that you couldn't just go for the quick fix, you had to work up from small twigs to sticks and so on. The embers would be perfect for toasting marshmallows that way.

Finding a series of long sticks, he began snapping them in half when, all of a sudden, someone crept up behind him. "Hey Ed!" He said abruptly.

Startled, he dropped what he was doing and wipped around to come face to face with his brother. "What the hell are you doing here?!" He yelled with a scowel on his face. "You better not be here to bother us." The week went by with ease but sadly, a few un-kind words from Clause every so often. She had a terrible habit of picking at them, fortunatly, nothing major, nothing like the first day where Ed was on the verge of having his ass handed to him.

"Nah." Al smirked as he waved a hand at him. "We're here for the fireworks and then we're leaving...also, I'm here to see if you're drinking, just so I can see if you're full of shit or not."

Sighing, he reached down and gathered up the sticks he originaly dropped. "I told you, I'm not drinking." Ed sood up straight and looked at Al with suspission. "Well, what about you? You're not drinking, are you?"

Al shook his head. "Clause is our hook-up for booze, and she has to drive us home. She said that if she can't drink, no one is. Which I totally understand. It would be pretty shitty being the only sober person in a car full of drunk people." He checked over his shoulder. "But uh...she's having a party next week which I'm going to. So I expect you not to rat me out." He folded his arms.

Ed smirked. "Expect what you want, but I'll make no promises." He dumped the twigs off in the bucket a few steps back.

With a roll of his eyes, he continued. "I saw that coming, which is the main reason I'm letting you know now. Alright...what do you want? Name it."

Shocked, Ed spun around and looked at his sibling. "A bribe? Come on Al--"

"Come on Ed!" He cut him off. "Just because you got stuck fitting into the 'out-crowd', doesn't mean I want to." He said with a hint of anger.

"I know how to choos my friends Al, I didn't get 'stuck' with anyone." Ed planted his fists on his hips.

"Whatever, so are we going to make a deal?" Al had seemed to calm himself down somewhat.

Skeptical, Ed nodded. "Fine...I want you to get that Clause friend of yours to leave us alone. She's irritating."

"I hear ya'." He said under his breath, followed up by a lenghty inhale. "I don't know if she'll go for that."

Rolling his eyes, yet again, he sighed. "At least for the week...including the night of this party of hers...from tonight on...and it counts if she gets her friends to do it too. So just leave us be."

Al nodded. "That, I can do. Up to, and including, the night of the party, you won't get picked on. You have my word."

"Good...and no making up for lost time afterwards. Aria doesn't deal too well with it, and we all just want to have fun tonight."

Al nearly jumped out of his skin. "Aria?" He turned pale as a ghost. "Is she here? Tonight?"

Ed raised an eyebrow. "Yeaaaah..." He drug out his word somewhat.

"You have to be careful with her Ed, she's a vampire you know?" The most amount of 'dead serious' he could muster in his voice and on his face was poured into that one sentence.

Ed laughed. "What? Al, seriously dude, don't be stupid."

He gave Edward a quick shove in the shoulder. "I don't mean like a vampire in the movies, I mean, like, she kills animals and drinks their blood. People are even saying that she killed her boyfriend and drank his blood, which is why no one ever seen him since they broke up. He stopped coming to school and everything." He looked over Ed's shoulder at the campsite his brother was staying at, their little cabin they rented in the distance blended in with the trees and looked rather erie.

"Well Al, as you'll come to realize, most people are idiots." Ed picked up the pail full of sticks.

"There you go, talking like that again. Anyway, I'm out of here, remember, you better keep you end of the bargin. And seriously, if you ever want to be popular, you better change for the better, and soon. And fix that way you talk." With that said, he turned and headed back to be with his group.

"I'll keep that in mind." He said sarcastically as he too headed off to his site.

"Get that slimy little bastard away from me!" Russell yelled as Aria followd behind him, her hands coated up to her wrists in mud, with a frog delicatly being held in her fingers. "Put it back!"

"Oh, come on, he's cute and you hurt his feelings. Just look at his little eyes. Touch him!" She scooted along behind him. "He matches your hair to boot!"

Ed laid the firewood down near the fire pit and smirked. "Glad to see they're keeping busy."

Bunny nodded. "Everything else was done, so we let the kids go and play." She held up a raw piece of meat on a knife in front of Ed's line of vision. "Steak?"

"Cooked?" He smiled.

"Of course." She laid it back in the tinfoil saturated with marinating sauce. "We'll eat before the concert, I have something different here for Aria too, and then we'll have marshmallows when we watch the fireworks."

Leo held up two jumbo bags of marshmallows. "I'm positive we won't run out this time. Not like last year."

"Hopefully." Aria walked up next to the cooler, drying her hands off on a small red towel. "And I made sure to buy plenty of drinks for us too." She knelt down next to the cooler.

Russell sat down on a log next to the soon to be fire. "Good, I'm thirsty." He huffed, out of breath from being chased with a little froggy critter.

"Drinks?" Ed followed up.

Aria held up one of the glass bottles filled with red liquid. "Wine flavored coolers. They're really good." She took the grocery bag filled with them and began piling them into the cooler filled with ice. "I wasn't sure what you liked, so I just picked up the regular berry ones for you." She held up the bottle, a design of berries lining the upper rim of the bottle.

"Uh...I don't think I should..." He seemed skeptical.

"Don't worry, we're allowed to drink these." She grabbed on and headed over to Ed. "Right there." She pointed to one of the first ingredients. "Dealcoholized wine; they're non-alcoholic, but they taste like wine. So we can just sit and pretend we're being rebels." She smiled. "But if you're still uncomforable with it, you don't have to drink it, we still have pop."

Ed sighed in relief. "Nah, it's ok. I'll have one of them." He smiled and took a seat next to Russell, happy just being where he was.

* * *

"The party next Friday is going to be awesome. You'll drink with is right?" Clause smiled at Al who was staring off into the trees.

"Huh?" He drew his attention back toward his friends. "Yeah, sure." Taking a quick glance in Winry's direction, he could see she was reading some kind of heavy book. "Who else is going?" He asked, wishful to the fact that Winry's name had the potential to get mentioned.

"So far, just the cheerleading team, the basketball team, the student council and a few of my buddies from college. But there'll be more." She took out a pack of cigarettes and twirled them in her hands.

"Cool." Al was excited; he had a week to get to know Winry and then he could hook up with her at Clause's party. He smiled, teeming with anticipation.

* * *

There you have it...let's hear what you think.


	9. Episode 9 Bonding

Woot! Another chapter that I finally got to type and post! Like I said, I have up to chapter 13 done right now, and I'll be able to update once every week or so again…because, guess on, guess….can't guess? Well…I GOT A COMPUTER!!!

It's a little crap box that can't even handle anything over a 36 Gig hard drive, but still, it's better than nothing. It'll be a 'check your e-mail and update' computer, not my usual 'spend hours at a time playing online games, Sims 2, fable and adobe' computer. No way, but like I said, I can write, and that's, honestly, all that matters.

Anyway, you guys are going to enjoy this one, I finally get to open up the group's personality a whole bunch and you finally get to look into their history. But just a little, for now. I get to expand on the characters as the story progresses.

Here you guys go, chapter 9, and thanks for sticking with me.

* * *

**Chapter 9 – Bonding**

* * *

Ed smiled a he enjoyed the booming fireworks with the faux-wine cooler accompanied by toasted marshmallows, the epitome of class. As promised, Al had kept his distance and left the five of them alone. With no word from Clause either, they were safe to assume that he was holding up his end of the bargain in full. Needless to say, the night was going perfect.

"Hey Ed!" Al's voice bellowed from right behind Ed.

"Stop doing that!" Ed whipped around to once again see Al's, grinning, face.

"Just dropped by to see what you were up to." He smirked deviously at his twin brother. "I just knew you couldn't resist having a drink." He said in a hushed tone whilst giving Ed a swift pat on the back. "There's hope for you yet."

Quickly cutting off anymore praise his sibling might have given him out of misinformation, he held the glass bottle in front of Al's face; by this time, they had torqued the interest of the rest of the group. "Nice try Al, but it's non-alcoholic."

Alphonse squinted at the tiny sideways writing in the dim light of the community campfire; they had been set up along side of the riverbed for everyone to enjoy. "…huh…pussy." He stood up. "Whatever, I'm off after this, so I figured I'd say goodbye."

"_Auf Wiedersehen_'." Ed spoke in his fluent second language as Al ruffled his hair before walking off.

"_Auf Wiedersehen Sie Exzentriker_." He scoffed and smiled. "_Ich muss Sie betrunken irgendwann machen_." Al too spoke perfectly in German, just like Edward.

Edward shook his head. "I don't think so." With that, Al was gone.

Aria's eyes were bright. "You both speak another language? That's amazing."

Bunny rolled her eyes. "And here I thought Al was a total knob. He actually has a brain."

Ed laughed. "He means well…but I have heard on more than one occasion, someone referring to him as 'bright as a bag of hammers'…so I see it." He finished off his drink and reached into the marshmallow bag.

Aria poked him in the shoulder. "That's not nice, you should love your family."

Ed snickered. "Yeah, but love is such a strong word." An untoasted marshmallow, flung by Aria, flew and hit Edward in the forehead, bounced off and landed in the fire. "I'm kidding." He rubbed the powder from the soft sugary treat off his skin. "Of course I love my brother, I just worry about him sometimes. He's so superficial."

Later on in the evening, around the midnight hour, Ed and his new friends sat around their campfire, roasting the latter half of the first marshmallow bag and a few hot dogs; Aria had brought her own 'vegetarian friendly' sausages. It was 'spicy Italian in flavor.

Bunny leaned back and glanced up at the stars. "Hmm…" A couple of the members of the group turned their attention toward her. "How do you think we all came to be here?"

Leo shrugged. "I don't know…something to do with a big bang, evolution, social progression."

Paninya shook her head. "I didn't mean it like that you dork." She laughed lightly. "I mean, us, as a group. How did the five of us find each other and mesh as well as we did? I hear so many people talk about how they got 'screwed over by this friend' or 'cheated on by another friend'." She sat up. "You know what I mean?"

Russell nodded. "I suppose we just gravitated towards one another because of the need to be honest. And we stayed together because we remained honest."

The group seemed to whole heartedly agree. "And from what I can tell." Aria continued on the conversation. "All of us dislike conflict." Once again, this was met with a communal nod.

"I can see that…but how did **we** turn out this way?" Bunny questioned again.

Russ spoke up again. "Well, have any of us led a normal home life? From what I know about you guys, it seems that there's some factor in our lifestyles that sets us apart from the 'norm'." He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "Take me for example. After dad got a concussion, he stopped disciplining my little brother, thus, Fletcher is out of control. He also has a compromised learning curb on top of the misbehaving, so he doesn't understand consequence. Making life exceedingly difficult for mom, who would rather go out to bars than make a living." He shrugged. "I have no structure in my home life, but with you guys here, I manage to keep sane."

Leo piped up. "My family and I got moved around a lot because of mom's illness, so, after dad passed away, it was pretty tough even for the bare minimum living expenses. It was only last year that we finally got that grant that we were holding out on, for five years, and actually managed to buy a house. Even still, mom's still sick, so the house is basically just a band-aid covering a bullet hold."

"I love Scarling." Aria piped up. "But anyway; my mom's been in and out of relationship after relationship, so it's made me grow pretty distant from her. And after dad left us, I never had a decent male role model, making it difficult to get a decent relationship of my own. Reference back to the abusive boyfriend I just had."

Bunny nodded. "I think if I had an abusive boyfriend, my mom might have actually stuck around. But, since I told her I'll never have a boyfriend, only girlfriends, she went all riotous and holy then left us to go be with her church. So now it's just me and my dad, he's fine with me being gay and he really doesn't understand why mom's taking it so hard. Regardless, I haven't seen her in about three years, but from what I can figure, she being housed somewhere by the church in hiding."

Ed sighed. "That's pretty rough. With me…ever since I needed glasses, I kind of fell short of Al's success with sports, and I know dad means well, but he picked favorites for the longest time. He made my success in school and arts go unnoticed and unappreciated. Thus making me feel really useless, like any amount of marks I got in school didn't matte. Mom let it go and told me I was imagining things, though all she did was either perform on stage with dad or paint. I know I don't have it as tough as some, but it's still damaging to say the least." He huffed, but luckily for him, it felt good to get it all off his chest. This was the first time he really opened up about his problems, in fact, he never told anyone about his concerns at all before, not even Al.

"Wow…" Leo snickered. "We really are a sad bunch."

Aria nodded. "At least we have each other."

"That's right." Ed added in. "Al referred to us as the 'out crowd'…but if we're a crowd, at least we're not alone in the world." He grabbed a chunk of wood from the pile and tossed it in the fire. "Honestly, I'm happy where I'm at, I wouldn't change a thing." Ed poked at the fire with one of the designated 'poking sticks'. "But…did you ever get the feeling that someone in the 'in crowd' really doesn't want to be there?"

Leo gave him a raised eyebrow. "I doubt Al wants to abandon the 'plastic team', he's got the hot's for Winry."

Ed figured as much with how much he talked with her, rather, tried to talk with her. Though she had no interest in Al, she did however seem to like talking to him. She spoke with him during homeroom, math class, on several occasions.

"Yeah, you're right." Ed actually didn't have Al in mind when he asked the question, he was referring to Winry. Whenever she was with her friends, she was quite vapid and bored; though when she spoke with him, she was enthusiastic and cheerful. More and more throughout the week what she meant by 'forgive the front', became quite clear.

Edward stared off blankly into the fire. He still was left in the dark; if she disliked who she was with, it made sense to him to go about changing who was around her. He was willing to accept her for whoever she was. It then occurred to him, in a brief passing though; what if she was interested in him, but not Al?

Feeling it best not to mention Winry; even though he could take Al if need be, he wanted to avoid conflict. That evening was going to be the first evening where Al was staying in his new room. It had just been painted so it was all set by this point; which was a good thing, Winry had given him her cell phone number so he could talk to her without drawing too much attention.

Finally finishing with his own random thoughts, he returned to the group. Ed really did have a bad habit of getting lost deep in his own thoughts.

* * *

Not being able to stand it any longer, Winry reached over to Clause, while she was driving, and grabbed the cigarette right out of her mouth. "What did I tell you about doing this?" With a quick jerk of her hand she flung the offending white death stick out the window.

"What the fuck? Why did you do that?" She yelled in anger, her nails digging into the steering wheel.

"I told you not to smoke in the car with me here…several times." She folded her arms and scowled. "Also, you're on the ropes Clause. One coughing fit in the middle of a performance and you're out."

"Winry, you can't be serious! …fine, I'm sorry." Clause may have been an abrasive person, but she knew when to back down. Winry may have been a lot less bubbly than the rest of the friends in their group, but her leadership skills were something to be reckoned with. "Anyone want to go to Tim Horton's?" Being quick to patch things up, she offered an alternative to everyone going home on a bad note.

"Fine by me." Winry nodded. She peeked over the seat. "Guys? Timmy's?" She saw them, Al being one of the guys, nod in agreement. "Good, I'm craving a Nanaimo bar." She smiled and sat back in her seat.

* * *

You know the drill, leave me a review, and I'll update sooner. Like I said, I have a computer now, so updating is going to be a breeze!

I love you guys:)


	10. Episode 10 Cruel

I told you I was going to update more often...so this means I'll get more reviews from my readers...you won't just read and pass me by...right? Right?

Oh well, here's chapter 10 for you guys to enjoy.

* * *

**_Chapter 10 – Cruel_**

* * *

With a quick thud, Leo shut the trunk of the car, all the supplies and left over food packed neatly within. "You guys got all your stuff?" He glanced around, his friends nodded. "Good, cause' I'm not coming back till next year." He swirled his keys around his thumb. "Lets go." Piling back into the car, like they did on Friday, the teens headed back toward the city.

Ed stretched, as best he could in the back seat, and yawned loudly. "We'll have to do that again sometime…maybe when the weather gets warmer." Originally they intended to use tents, but after the camp manager said that there was a cabin free for the taking, they just couldn't resist, the weather was a little chill for camping, it was Autumn after all.

"Definitely." Paninya agreed. "We could swim the river too."

Aria laughed. "Again."

"Again?" Ed followed up. "You've done it before?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Me and Bunny got really bored last summer and swam across the river with pool noodles."

Russell added in. "We dropped them off on one side, took the car over the bridge and met them on the other side. Took them nearly 40 minutes, but they did it." The river that lined the campsite was quite wide, not a fast flowing river, but still, a challenging swim.

"Sounds like fun." Ed smiled.

* * *

"Nilla, I'm back." Aria beamed as she entered her backyard, via the back porch; to her surprise, she saw Jean putting up a brand new shed. "You got a new one? I just wanted you to fix the hold in the other one." The small shed in the centre of the yard had a hole in the back from old age and someone moving building materials carelessly around the back of the little hut. Resulting in a hole.

"I know, but Winter's coming and I found a shed with insulation." He smiled at his step-daughter. "Your mom doesn't like the little critter in the house, so this it the next best thing. I'm also going to wire in a little heater for the night time. It'll be solar powered so we don't need to worry about it running up the power bill. It'll charge during the day and keep Nilla warm all night."

Aria's eyes were wide with surprise. "Wow…thank you…"

"No worries, I got a buddy who's all into the electronics, he gave me a really good deal on it."

"Awesome. I really appreciate it Jean." Aria stepped her way down to the bottom stair.

"Also." Jean left his post and approached Aria. "I want to show you something." Pulling a ring box from his pocket, he passed it to her.

She popped the little crushed velvet box open and revealed a gold ring, perfectly fitted with a rather large diamond. "Oh Jean, it's lovely. But don't you think I'm a little young for you?" She joked.

"It's for your mom, you spaz." He smiled warmly as he stood next to Aria. "Do you think she'll like it? It's only an engagement ring, but still…"

Aria kept up a strong front and did not sway her expression. "She'll love it." Knowing her mom all too well, she really didn't want to get too attached to Jean. "Here." She placed the ring, concealed in it's blue box, back in Jean's hand. "Don't do it in a public place, mom doesn't like the attention." Really, all Aria was doing was protecting him from a suspected refusal in a large crowd of people. Though, if she did say yes, all the better.

"I'll keep that in mind." Jean nodded as he shoved the ring box back into his pocket.

"And none of that 'down on one knee' stuff, she'll just laugh." Aria wagged a finger. "Mom hates cliché's."

"Really? I'll have to remember that too." He gave her a pat on the shoulder and was about to say something else when he got sidetracked. "Uh, did you open the sliding door?"

Aria looked behind her to see that the sliding door was indeed still open. "No, it was open when I cam back here, why?"

"It's just…" He stared off into the backyard. "I lost sight of Nilla…come to think of it, I haven't seen her at all." He made eye contact with Aria once again, who was now on the verge of panic. "I think she got loose in the house."

"Oh no, don't tell me that." She started up the stairs. "Nilla…Nilla bunny, come'ere."

"I'm really sorry about this." He ran his fingers through his short blond hair. "I didn't think she could get up the stairs."

Aria may have been worried, se wasn't mad. "It's ok, just help me look for her." She landed on the top stair. "Tear the backyard apart, not literally, and see if she's hiding somewhere."

"Right." With that said, they parted ways.

Aria headed into the kitchen and began checking around the vegetable bin. "Nilla." She said, followed up by the classic clicking noise associated with making animals come to oneself. "Here Nilla-Nilla-Nilla." She chanted in hopes that her floppy eared friend would hear her.

"Aria!" Jean's voice resonated from the backyard.

With a bounce in her step, Aria skid, in her sock feet, in front of the sliding backdoor. "Did you find her?" She looked at Jean standing behind some of the bushes; her heart sank. "Ooooh…if she's dead, hide the body and tell me she ran away."

He flagged her to approach. "She's not here, but come look at this." Jean referenced the soil behind one of the bushes in the back yard. Aria, with her newly acquired sandals, went over to what Jean was talking about. "It kind of looks like someone came into the backyard and took her." He pointed at the various footprints in the soft soil. "See these footprints, They're too small to be mine, and way to big to be yours or your mother's. So, some young boy, judging from the shoe name brand…" 'Adidas' was clearly marked in the ground. "…popular amoung kids your age, jumped from the top of the fence to kidnap the bunny." Jean pointed to the scratch marks beneath the bush. "See, it looks like Nilla tried to get away."

Aria was astounded. She looked at the ground, up to Jean and then back down to the ground again. "I guess it paid off letting you watch all those cop dramas."

"Satellite is a wonderful thing." He smiled but quickly faded back to seriousness. "But who was it?"

The young red head was saddened. "Who would even want to do that to me?" She began getting teary eyed.

"Come on, don't cry." He pulled her in close and gave her a reassuring hug. "I'll try and see if I can find out who took her, ok, cheer up."

"Ok…" She wiped the tears from beneath her eyes. "I'll check around school, most of the time, people suck at lying."

"I'll ask around the neighbourhood, see if anyone saw anything." He looked around the yard. "She was here yesterday, I fed her, so it must have happened last night."

* * *

Ed waved briefly as Leo backed out of the driveway. He dropped his bookbag off, after entering his house, by the front door. "I'm home!" He announced as he peered around the hall. Making out the faint sound of music coming from the basement. "Oh, they're practicing." Glancing at the clock in the kitchen, he saw that it was shortly after ten. "Al should be up."

Being away from electronics all weekend, or a decent signal for his cell phone. He needed to check his e-mail, to see if anything was sent to him in his absence. At that moment, Ed was kicking himself for buying a PS2 rather than a desktop PC. He was a sucker for Star Wars games, and since the computer controls were too weird for him to et use to, the Playstation was just too tempting.

He stood in front of Al's door for a second, he heard some small noises of shuffling in the room, but no typing. Giving a relatively loud knock, he waited for an answer.

With a swift jerk, Al opened the door, only enough to pop his head and one shoulder out. "What? I'm not dressed yet."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Well, put pants on, I want to use your computer."

"It's scanning." He gave an excuse.

"I'll pause it." Ed pushed the door.

"For spyware." Al held firm and gave yet another excuse.

"Are you running AdAware?" He questioned.

"Oh course." He nodded. "And AVG."

"Fine, I'll go on when it's done…" He paused. "How did you get spyware?" He knew Al was notorious for going to places on the internet that were far from secure.

Al broke eye contact. "Brazilian site."

Ed sighed as he began walking down the hall to his own room. "I guess everyone's gotta' have a hobby." Ed spoke over his shoulder. "Just wipe off the keyboard this time."

Al's eye twitched. "I told you! I spilled pop on it!"

"Sure Al." Ed entered his own room and closed the door.

Alphonse sighed and closed his door and well; he leaned up against the frame and glanced at the powered down computer and scowled. "…it _was_ pop…you ass." Walking over to his bed, tightening the drawstring on his sweatpants along the was, he sighed and then flopped down, face fist, into his blankets.

* * *

"Morning everyo—wow, you look bummed." Ed cut his greeting short at the sight of Aria; her cheeks a little red and a depressed expression on her face.

"Someone stole Nilla." Paninya spoke up, doing her best to comfort Aria.

"Stole? Are you sure she didn't just run away?" Ed knelt down next to Aria.

"Yeah, whoever it was trampled mom's flowers too. There were footprints leading from the back fence to the gate." She buried her face between her knees.

_Beep. _The intercom came on in the hallway, grabbing the attention of the small group. "_Attention._" The principal's voice echoed in the semi crowded halls. "_There will be a mandatory meeting in the gym for all student and teacher personal._"

The rest of the short time they had together before first period passed slowly. They tried their best to think of who might have taken Nilla away. There was no 100 percent either way as to what happened, but taking all the footprints into consideration, it really did look like someone took her.

After the bell rang, they all filed into the gym, and it was a huge room; complete with the stage, situated at the end. It had to be an enormous room to house the entire student body and staff. Their little group always sat off to the side, near the corner of the bleachers. Ed glanced around the room and saw him sitting on the edge of the stage with the rest of his team and the 'plastic squad' close behind them.

"No flags, no military speakers? Maybe it's not the R-day ceremony…wonder what it's for then." Russell questioned as he leaned against the wall while sitting on the bottom rung in the bleachers.

"Thank you everyone, as a representative of the board of education, I feel it necessary to express my concern towards a very overlooked issue that has been brought to my attention over the weekend." Mr. Lang announced to the school. "Now, in the past several years, this has not even been so much as mentioned in passing. So allow me to explain."

The principal swung his arms discretely behind himself and folded his hands at the lower portion of his back. "It seems that animal cruelty is on the rise. I was informed of a horrendous even, no names will be mentioned, of an act of violence towards a pet of one of our students. A small rabbit was abused and then killed in a brutal manner, the likes of which I've never heard before. I fear I will not go into the details. I'm not positive of the validity of said report, but it has however inspired me to bring in a few guest speakers, and good friends of mine at that, regarding the laws adhering to animal cruelty."

Aria sat up against the wall of the gym, mouth ajar and a horrified look on her face.

"They're totally not talking about Nilla." Edward shook his head in disbelief.

"I should hope so." Tears were building up in Aria's eyes as she spoke.

Leo rubbed Aria's shoulder closest to him. "Someone just took Nilla, I'm sure of it. No one I know is that psychotic." He said in a calm tone, glazing the situation.

"Maybe…" She stared off at the floor.

* * *

Fixing her black streaked, red hair behind her ears, she sighed. The only people she told were her friends, there was not way a crazy rumour could have spread in such a short amount of time. On her way back to her second class, she was a little late due to her bathroom trip, she still couldn't stop crying over the loss of Nilla, she glanced out the many windows on he way up the stairs; taking quick note of the gym class running laps around the track. Clause was among the group running.

"Wait." She spoke to herself. Though she did not like the girl in question even a little, it didn't stop her from knowing where she lived. Jean said he had went asking around to see if anyone saw anything; he must have went to her house, explained what happened and then she twisted it around and got her mother to call the school about it. Which explained how all this got set up within a day.

"Aria." Winry's voice came from behind her.

"Oh…hi." She said with dis-amusement.

"Listen! I know you have everything against my friends, understandable, but don't lump my behaviour in with theirs. I've never wronged you." She quickly went on the defensive.

Aria was shocked, nodded just the same. "Sorry, I guess I'm not in the greatest mood…did you want something?" Aria said, defeated.

"It's about your bunny." Winry began. "Clause told me something **SO** far from what the truth probably is, I needed to ask you what really happened." She gestured her hands in front of her as if to say 'what the hell?'.

"Well…" Aria sighed. "When I came back from the camping trip I checked the backyard for Nilla. Jean said that it looked like someone came into the yard and took her. Mom's plants were trampled and there were foot prints leading from the back fence to the gate in the front."

Winry took in the information. "Ok…what does Nilla look like? If one of my friends took her, I can return her to you…Nilla's a girl right? 'Nilla' sounds very girly."

Aria smiled and felt a lot of tension lift from her shoulders. "Yeah, Nilla's a girl. She's all brown, light brown, except for the tips of each of her ears, they look like they were dipped in vanilla frosting. Hence her name, Nilla."

The taller, fair haired girl nodded. "That's so cute… Alright, I'll keep an eye out for her; but you keep the little tid-bit of me helping you to yourself, ok?"

"Sure." Aria nodded. "Thank you."

* * *

Woot! Trust! I won't say too much else, but just request a guess on who stole the bunny. 1 person...or mabe more...hehe.

You won't know till next update.

Reviews now? Please?


	11. Episode 11 Meddeling

Dave and I are now broken up. Yes, I am the cliche, single, teenage mom...except I'm 21...and I have a job. (Zing!) But you get the point.

Anyway, the show must go on. Sorry for the late update.

* * *

**Chapter 11 - Medeling**

* * *

"So what's the story with the rabbit?" Winry asked after laying her sub down. She invited Clause to eat at Subway, just to get her away from the rest of the group, so they could talk, one on one.

Clause sipped her Sprite and shrugged. "You heard Mr. Lang, crazy violent things that no one cares to hear."

Winry frowned. "Don't lie to me. I know for a fact that she's a big animal fanatic, so pinning it on her isn't going to work for me."

Rolling her eyes, she leaned over the table. "Why can't you just let me have fun." Clause groaned in frustration. "Uugh. Her step-father came over to my house on Sunday and asked my mom if she saw anyone break into their backyard. He said someone took Aria's rabbit. So, I dressed the story up a little and told the principal. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to get past my mom, I had to change Aria's name for the time being. But of course, that's not what I told the P.E.T.A. fanatics in the school. I remain an anonomous tipster." She cracked her fingers.

"And...what exactally do you get from all this?" Winry failed to see any motives.

"I get to watch her squirm." Clause smirked.

* * *

Lunch came and went, much like every other day and class continued as normal. Aria walked down the blank hall, mid class, to get a book from her locker; remembering it was only Monday, she forgot the order of her classes. 

"Hey." Ed's voice sounded from behind her. "Cutting classes?" He smirked as he caught up to Aria.

"No way. I just forgot my book...and you?" She poked him in the shoulder. "Skipper."

"What? Nah, bathroom." He walked along side her down the hall. Edward had only been at the school for a week and already, he finally felt he fell in with a group he could connect with.

Leo seemed to be the headstrong one in the group, making sure things got done when they needed to. Russell was the silver lining, offering light to bad situations. Paninya was very'get up and go', if you were too lazy to do something, she could talk you into doing it. Aria was the voice of reason, if the group was tking things in the wrong direction, she gave a sensible alternative; like using kindeling instead of lighter fluid to light the bonfire.

Finally coming up to her locker, she looked on in horror. "What the hell?" He locker had been covered with papers that said things like 'savage' 'psyco' ' crazy girl' 'get out!'. She quickly began tearing the papers from the metal door. "Why can't people just leave me alone?! I didn't do anything!" She slammed her fists on the locker. It was apparent to her that someone did spread the rumour about the rabbit and used her name.

Ed was quite distraught at the whole thing. "The least they could have done is spelled psycho right." It was spelled 'psyco' on the paper.

Aria smiled, but it quickly faded into tears. "Why do they always pick on me? I've had to deal with it for so long..."

Panicing somewhat, he looked frantically from side to side for something, anything, to help him. Thinking quickly, he tugged Aria close to him, he hugged her in a firm grip.

Quelling her own sobs for a moment, she managed to speak. "Thanks Ed." She hugged him back. "I'm just sad Nilla's gone; she was only a year old. I've had her since she was a baby."

"We'll do our best to find her." A deep red blush on his face, he held the sobbing Aria in his embrace.

_

* * *

"You do know about the promise that Al made to Ed right?" Winry pointed her straw at the dark haired girl._

_"Yeah, but it's not me or any of my friends bugging her, it's the school and the P.E.T.A. psycho's who are going to be all over her." She smacked her hands together and held them, palms out, to Winry. "My hands are clean."_

_Winry sighed. "She's going to figure out that it was you, she knows that Jean went to your house and told you about it. Then the next day, this happens. It looks way too suspicious. But if you think you're hands are clean, all you need to do is hope that Edward feels the same way. If he catches wind of your little plot, and he will, he'll get Al busted for drinking at your party on Friday."_

_"If he rats, we'll just get the boys to kick his ass. Simple as that." She cocked her head in a saucy manner._

_"That's all fine and good, I guess, but Al will still get in shit. I thought that you wanted to try and hook up with him at your party?" Winry, in return, cocked her head as well. "Kind of a hard thing to do if he's __**not**__ there."_

_Clause's expression went white. "...damn, I hate when you're right!"_

* * *

"I don't deal well with crying...sorry..." Ed rubbed the back of his neck. 

Aria cleared off her cheeks and smiled. "You cheered me up, that's all that matters." She smiled again. "Actually, Winry confronted me and told me she would keep an eye out for Nilla, just in case one of her friends took her. She told me to keep that to myself, but you tutor her, so I figured she would mention it anyway."

Ed smiled. "Well there you go, I'm sure we'll find her this way."

Aria nodded. "Let's just hope no one actually hurt her. The last thing I want to see is a meat pie on my doorstep with the name 'Nilla' engraved on the top."

He stared blankly for a second. "You're thinking into this way too much."

* * *

Edward sat next to Winry at one of the library's round tables. Not being that good at math, Ed agreed to help her. "What's the point of parabola's? They suck!" She did her best to map out the bell curve on her tattered graph paper. She had erased it so many times, it was beginning to wear. 

"They are frustrating. Luckily, it's only a short unit, we'll be done in two days. Mrs. Curtis said there was only going to be one parabola question on the next test and the next time we'll see it is the semester end exam, and then it's going to be optional anyway." Ed coaxed her.

"Good..." Winry trailed off and glanced up at Ed, he was intently looking at his work. "So...what's up with you and Aria?"

He continued his woork, unshaken. "...what do you mean?"

Winry laid her pencil down. "Riza said she saw you guys hugging in the hall. I was justy wondering what was going on there."

He looked up at her. "...oh that. I thought Aria told you, someone stole her rabbit. The rumour going around was that what happened to the rabbit was something Aria, herself, did. Someone stuck papers to her locker, basically, calling her a nut-job, she started crying, so I hugged her to make her feel better. Why?" He questioned.

Winry shook her head. "No reason. Did it sound weird, the way I asked?" She knew at times she sounded snotty, it was best to clairify, if necessary, that she wasn't trying to be snotty. "Did it sound like bitchyness?"

"It sounded like jealousy." He smirked.

"Wha?!" She blushed. "No, it's just--" She struggled for words. "It's just that, I thought we were friends and if you were to get a girlfriend, you would tell me. That's all." A quick recovery on her part.

"But I don't." He pointed out.

"I know that now." She smiled and then quickly went back to her work, changing the subject. "Hmm..."

"What?" Ed looked over to Winry who was now holding up the paper in front of her face.

She began handing him the paper. "It looks less like a bell curve and more like..." She began.

"...a line." He reluctantly finished her sentence as he looked at Winry's failed bell curve. "I'll make you a new graph, and this time, don't forget to apply the modifiers."

"I did...no I didn't." She looked at her miscalculation on the scrap paper. "I can see myself hating bells from here on out."

"Excuese me kids." One of the members of the cleaning staff spoke from the door. "I'm sorry, but I gotta' kick ya's out. Floor needs to be waxed."

"Sure..." Ed closed his book. "We could head back to my place to finish this if you want." He glanced at Winry.

Taking time to view her watch, she nodded. "Sure, I don't have to be anywhere for another three hours."

* * *

Fortunatly for her, Al seemed to confine himself to his room. Apparently, he had been like that since Sunday, so Ed paid it no mind. He and Winry finished their homework and before WInry left, she inquired about using the facilities. "It's up the stairs and too the left. Al's room is on the right, so don't make too much noise." 

Winry snickered. "Of course." Really, she was just trying to be nosey; nothing she needed to dig up here she imagined, she just wanted an excuese to see the rest of the house.

The downstairs was all hardwood floor and the upstairs had carpet, blue carpeting that spanned the entire hallway, stopping at each door and fading into another color of carpet. She could see that beneath Al's door that his carpet was an olive color.

Looking straight ahead, she saw a display of faux-flowers pouring out and over the edge of a tall white porcline vase. At the base of the vase was the statue of a small brown rabbit. Upon further inspection, it wasn't actaully a statue, rather a stuffed game rabbit. "Ew." Stuffed animals bothered her, unless they were plushies. Decorating ones house with dead animal carcasses just came across as a little gauch to her.

The critter stood on it's hind legs, front paws pulled tightly together and it's eyes wide, a glassy stare that seemed to be looking straight at her, adorn it's face. She took a few more steps toward the bathroom and that glassy stare, along with the bunny's head, followed her. "The hell?" She went toward the supposed stuffed rabbit and it buckled, on the verge of running away at a moment's notice. "Edward!!!" Winry yelled downstairs.

"Dammit." She could hear him mutter. "Is the sink not turning off agian? They said they fixed that."

"Nope!" Winry replied. "This is weird." The light brown fur, the white tipped ears; this was definitley Aria's pet.

"The hell?" He said upon reaching the top of the stairs. Ed gawked at the animal in disbelief.

"That's what I said." She looked back. "You had the bunny all along?" She snapped at him.

"I was gone with the group all weekend, it couldn't have been me." He defended his rightfully owned innocence.

"Would you keep it down..." Al pushed his semi open door fully open only to come face ot face with Winry. "Uh..." He was still half asleep and slightly confused. "Am I still asleep?" He checked over his own shoulder to see if he was still in his bed.

"Alphonse! You took the rabbit?!" Winry clenched her fist.

Al's face immedatly snapped out of it's sleepy expression to that of shock. "Wha--no...I---How did a rabbit get in the house?" He feigned igornance.

"I'm not stupid Al. Why the hell did you take Aria's pet?!" Ed quickly grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and jerked him out of his room; meanwhile, Winry gathered the friendly animal up in her arms. Ed balled his fist tightly and held it at his mid section.

"Dude, don't punch me! I can explain." Al pleaded.

"Whatever the explaination, you better be planning to return the arbbit to Aria and appoligizing to her. A good chunk of the school thinks she's a monster." Winry barked her order at him.

Alphonse turned to his brother. "Can't you just give it back to her, she's your friend." He said, still being held in his brother's iron grasp.

"No deal. You dug the grave, now you sleep in it." Edward said with a scowle.

Shaking free from Ed's grip and straightened himself out. "What did I tell you about talking like that?" He sighed.

"So...why'd you take her Al?" Winry looked at him in disgust.

He looked like a dog with his tail between his legs. "Don't worry, I can easily explain the whole thing."

* * *

"Uh...Aria?" Al came up behind her in the hall and tapped her on the shoulder. Ed was keeping a close eye from behind him. 

"Huh?" Turning around, she saw her bunny, cradeled in Al's arms. "Nilla?!" Her eyes went wide as she examined the small creature. She locked her eyes on Al's, a blatent streak of red in her gaze. "You took her?"

Al could sence her anger and shook his head. "Don't get mad yet, let me explain first." He scratched the bunny's ears. "Saturday night, I was hanging out with some of my friends from the basketball team and as we were walking, we cut through some guys' front yard. He came out and yelled at us. We told him we were just passing through, but the guy was a total fuckin' nut and sicked his dog on us. The four of us split up and sure enough, the dog ended up chasing me."

The bunny closed it's eyes as Al pet it's head. "To get away from the dog, I jumped a fence. And then I ended up in your yard."

She planted her fists on her hips. "An why did you take Nilla away from me?"

"Well..." He reluctantly looked at the bunny and then began handing her over to Aria. "When I landed..." A small cast then came into view on Nilla's right hind leg. "...I landed on her. I took her to the vet on Sunday and got the leg fixed up; then, when her leg was better, I was going to drop her off in your yard and no on would know the difference...but I got busted." He rubbed the back of his head in an awkward manner. "Really sorry about the confusion." He pet the rabbit in Aria's arms one last time. "Truth be told, I didn't even know it was your rabbit until yesterday."

Aria snuggled Nilla. "I'm just glad she isn't a pie." Leo reached over and pet Nilla.

Al raised an eyebrow. "A pie?"

Ed pat Al on the shoulder. "Never mind."

The young red head looked up to Al. "What about the vet bill?"

Alphonse took a step back. "It's was my fault, I'll take care of it." He waved. "Later."

"Thanks...bye." Aria said as she walked off. She smiled, her friends all standing at her side, happy that Nilla was safely back in it's owner's arms.

Clause watched on from the sidelines, she sighed in relief; her medeling didn't ruin her chances with Al.

* * *

There you have it...

Yeah, can you tell I'm really broken up about the whole thing. (eye roll) We're still on good terms, but I need him to leave, so I'm making him leave. All is right in the world.


	12. Episode 12 So it Begins

* * *

Sorry I was so late with the update guys, a lot of shit was happening over the last while that was just so overbearing that I really didn't have the energy to update.

First off, Dave moved out on his own after a long three months. Finally, on the day he gets his new apartment and gets his stuff moved in...we get a call saying that our friend Mike DeMone had died.

Yeah...it was true, Mike, Bucky as he preferred to be called, passed away at the young age of 20 due to a blood clot in his brain on April 12th. He's got a movie on facebook in memorial...he was younger than me...it really scared me...but alas, as depressing as it was, I need to keep going.

So, here it is, finally, the next chapter. Enjoy. (Sorry for being so depressing. DX)

* * *

Chapter 12 – So it Begins

* * *

"You have to pick Al up from the party at 12, go get him before you come get us." Trisha spoke through the front window of their SUV. "Come here right afterwards."

"Sure, 12 o'clock." Ed buckled himself in.

"I'm drinking tonight, so you can drive late." Von waved at his son in the front seat.

"Drunken after-party, got ya'." Ed nodded. He knew that his father never drank in between performances, except for the night after, or, in this case, right afterwards. "Good luck." He waved at his folks. With that said, he pulled out of the driveway leading up to the enormous theater and headed back home to where he knew Al was waiting.

After a short drive, he pulled up in front of his own house where Al stood impatiently. "How come you took so long?"

"I came right back." He squinted at Alphonse.

"Whatever." He hopped in the vehicle. "Just do it faster next time. Let's go, come on."

"Ok, simmer. If you don't like my driving, you can walk." Ed said as he pulled away.

"Sorry, geez. Why are you so touchy?" He smirked at Ed. "Is it 'cause I was invited and you weren't? Jealousy doesn't look good on you brother."

Ed solemnly shook his head. "No, I could really care less. I just don't think it's a very good idea to drink at this party."

Al gave him a death glare. "You better not rat on me or-"

"Or what?" Ed glared right back at him out of his preferiral vision. It wasn't direct, but it was still intimidating, not a hint of fear in him either.

Knowing all too well his position with Ed, he backed right down. "Or else you'll look like a jerk for breaking your word."

"Ughh." He groaned in frustration and continued to drive down the street in the balmy Autumn evening. "Here." He said as he pulled up along side of Claus's house. "I won't tell mom or dad, but if you get caught, you're on your own."

"Thank you." Alphonse nodded as he exited the vhecial.

"Don't go overboard." He warned.

"I'm sure I won't." He shut the door to the large SUV and walked off down the path in the front yard, hearing Ed pulling away softly, he sighed in relief. Fearing Ed was going to squeal the tires, he wasn't looking forward to explaining to his friends why he didn't have his own license yet and needed to have his brother drive him places.

* * *

"Do you think it was a good idea?" Aria asked as she shifted her weight in the arm chair.

"Of course not." Ed laid on top of the covers on his bed. "I made sure he knew that." Edward had a decent size room, a small arm chair was even managed to fit amongst his desk, small entertainment centre and bed. He hated playing his games while sitting on the edge of his bed, it warped the matterase, so he invested in a small but comfortable gaming chair, bright red in color.

"Sometimes it best to let people learn these things on their own." Russell said as he mashed the fire button. "He'll get it, don't worry about it. YES!" He exclaimed right after giving his words of comfort. "Fuck your damn A.T.A.T.'s"

"Dammit." Leo laid his controller on the floor and laid back on the carpet, staring at Ed up side down. "I'll go with you to pick him up, so if he's unbearable, I'll hold him down and you can wail on em'."

Ed smirked. "Don't worry, I can take Al, especially in a lower state of conciseness."

"About that." Russell fixed his chin length green hair behind one of his ears, revealing one of his brown eyes. "Remember the first day of school, at the end of the day? Al said that if he needed you to be beaten up, he'd do it himself. You said 'like you could'; then he backed down...what's up with that?"

"Oh, that. Al can't fight for beans." He smiled.

"And you can?" Paniniya was skeptical.

"Yeah, actually I can. Right after I got my contacts, I convinced my parents I needed to defend myself. I got picked on because I wasn't as popular as Al, due to my blatant lack of involvement with sports. So, I took up Ju-Jitsu." The group turned their full attention toward Edward.

"Ju-Jitsu? Isn't that dangerous?" Paninya raised both her eyebrows.

"Nah. It's mostly self defense. There's lots of throws and pins, really useful if you need to subdue someone without hurting them...unless you want to, then you can just pin **and** twist, like, an arm or a leg."

"I still don't see it." Bunny shrugged. "You don't come across to me as the fighting type, you're kind of skinny." She said as she examined him.

"I'm not skinny, I'm lean." Ed retorted.

"Yeah? So's chicken." She smirked. Everyone, Ed included, all got a kick out of Bunny's speak your mind nature, it was quite amusing.

The hours passed and 'game night' went on without incident. Edward had proposed game night be held at his house, not because Aria's new furniture in the basement was uncomfortable, rather because he needed to pick Al up and drag him straight back home. It was a better way to keep an eye on him, if need be, without having to ditch out early.

Al had been left off at the party at six, and the story was going to go, 'He felt the party was boring, so he left early, around nine.' Of course, it would really be eleven, giving them an hour to get him home and in bed. No one would be the wiser.

Roughly around ten, the phone rang; grabbing it and pushing the talk button, Ed raised it to his ear. "Hello."

"Ed? Y-you have to c-come and get me...now...l-l-like n-now." Al's voice sounded over the receiver.

"You're studdering, what's wrong?" Ed leaned forward and tried to listen to him over the booming music in the background.

"I'm c-cold. J-just come and get m-me. Hurry, o-ok?" He repeated himself, still studdering a great deal.

"Ok, breath. I'll be there in a few. Wait for me on the front step." With that said, he hung up the phone. "Well...he sounds like he's pretty wasted."

"He didn't sound _drunk, _per-say." Bunny said. She was sitting next to him on the bed so she could make out the bulk of the conversation.

"Really?" Ed stood up at the bedside. "Whatever the case, I have to drag him home." Glancing down to Leo, who was saving his progress in the game, he looked hopeful that he wouldn't have to drag his brother home alone. "You in?"

"Totally. I don't want to miss this." He stood up and straightened out the front of his cloths. "He's unbearable enough sober, so this is going to be interesting." Leo smirked wide. "Let's go."

* * *

Al sat on the front step, staring intently at the ground, his concentration flowing from one point to another. He pulled his legs up to the step right beneath him and he waited. His body was heavy and didn't want to move, but for an odd reason, light and airy when he did move. His mind whipped from one thought to another with ease and with no segway between any sort of coherent thought that came to mind.

"Alphonse?" Ed's voice seemed to be lost in translation.

"Huh?" Al looked up to him. "When did you get here? What time is it?"

Edward checked his phone. "Ten thirty...and...we just pulled up, weren't you paying attention?" He examined his brother's expression, he looked to be off in a haze of confusion. "How much did you drink?"

Al let the question process for a few seconds. "Only one."

Skeptical, he folded his arms. "I'm so sure." He sighed and looked back to Leo, then glared at Al again. "Can you walk?"

With a shake of his head, he supported himself with his hands firmly planted on the step at either of his sides. "I d-don't think my legs are going to work." He looked over his shoulder. "I-I gotta get out of here before Clause sees me. She's been bugging me all night."

Leo stepped to the front of Ed and reached out to Al. "Come on, give me your arm." He tugged the intoxicated youth to his feet and wobbled a bit, but successfully managed to get off the steps without landing on his face. "Only one right? What was in it?" He asked as he watched Ed support him from the other side.

"I don't know. Just get me the hell o-out of h-here." Al managed to get out, looking straight forward, no intention of going back.

"Hey Ed...you feel that?" Leo placed his hand on Al's bicep to carry him, and he managed to feel his pulse through his shirt. "His heart's racing like he's been running around."

Ed checked his siblings pulse as well. "You're right...what the hell did you get into?" He scolded Alphonse.

"Seriously, don't yell." Al completely evaded the question.

"Just get in the back seat and keep quiet." Ed opened the door and with his free hand and then slammed Al in the upper portion of his back, sending him careening into the cushioned backseat. Slamming the door, he crammed Al into the vhecial.

"Maybe you should be more careful with him; he seems to be in a delicate state." Leo looked at Al trying his hardest to figure out what just happened.

"He can take it." Ed said as he hopped into the front seat.

* * *

"Do you think they'll be back with Al soon?" Aria said through mashing the 'X' button.

"Leo and Ed had their turns, what does it matter?" Bunny inquired, doing her best to dodge Aria's onslaught of lasers.

"I was just wondering if Al's ok." She continued to jam the designated fire button.

Bunny panicked and smashed her ship into an oncoming space station. "He broke Nilla's leg, what do you care?" She laid the controller down and saw that Aria was blushing a little. "Oh-my-various-gods, you have a crush on him." She pushed Aria on the shoulder.

"What?!" She blushed even deeper. "No! He's cute, but I don't '_like him_', like him." She brought her attention back to the TV screen where her ship was battling through the empire's forces.

"Sure Aria...so...do you always go for the bad boy? You did that before and you landed yourself in the hospital. Had you have listened to me, you'd be fine." Bunny said, a smirk on her face.

"I'm not going for him, I'm not interested in dating for a good long while." She dodged a few of Paninya's attacks. "If I listened to you, huh? If '_you_' listened to me, you would know that I like boys. I don't like girls like that."

She scowled. "You didn't even give me a chance. I think you would like girls if you tried." She then smiled wide.

"I think you should try...right now." Russell joined Paninya in smiling widely. "Go for it, I won't mind." He said as he readied his camera phone to catch anyting of any interest.

Aria sighed. "You're just as bad as she is, if not worse."

Paninya rolled her eyes. "I doubt he is. Hmm?" The sound of the front door opening broke the teen's conversation.

"-and a stupid, miserable, dumb fuck. I'll never cover your ass again." Ed's voice resonated from downstairs.

"I do believe they're home." Russell looked out the bedroom door and saw Ed reach the top of the stairs with Al on his back. Ed let him down.

"Don't drown in the sink, brush your teeth and then get the fuck to bed." Ed briskly shut the bathroom door, sealing Al inside. "I have to go and get mom and dad in an hour, so make sure you're asleep." He left the bathroom door alone and headed back into his own room. Leaning against the door frame, he took a deep breath and looked up to the ceiling. "He puked in the back seat. And now mom and dad are going to know I was covering for him." He put his head forward a little and then let it bump against the door frame. "Scheiße."

"Was it really bad?" Aria questioned with worry.

Ed shook his head. "Not really, it was just on the floor. It's the smell I'm worried about." He sighed. "I know I said if he got caught he'd be on his own, ehhh...he was smart enough to come home early...fuck." Normally he did his best to avoid swearing so much, but he was rather upset and his mom wasn't there to bust his chops over it.

"Vinegar!" Aria blurted. "Vinegar is a great cleaner. It's also great for removing bad smells from surfaces."

Edward began to look hopeful again. "Leo's hosing out the back seat...do you think that'll work better?"

"Can't hurt...got vinegar?" With that in mind, she headed downstairs with Ed.

Paninya nodded, a devious smirk adorn her lips. Russell backed up slightly. "What's with that look?" He questioned.

She nodded again as she peered through the empty door. "I could totally make her gay."

Russell rolled his eyes. "I doubt you could make her toast."

Flustered, Bunny raised her hands up in the air in front of her, above her head, and let them slap against her thighs. "The one time I light jell-o on fire and I never hear the end of it!"

"You had it in the fucking microwave when it happened! My faith in your ability to take something and make it into something completely different, needless to say, doesn't exist." Russ retorted. Powder sugar to fire didn't sit well with him.

"...shut up..." She sat down next to him on the bed, smiling all the way. "Couldn't hurt to try, I might get it."

He nodded. "Maybe, but maybe you'll just light that which you're trying to change on fire. Then you'll just get burned...get it?" He saw Paininya's hopeful expression soon faded. Russell gave her a firm pat on the shoulder. "We're all friends...why not just keep it that way? It's just so much simpler and there are so many more girls out there." He stood up. "Besides, we're still young. That's why I choose not to date. It gives me more time to be myself."

Paninya sighed. "...what's it like to _not_ need someone?" She seemed discouraged.

Russ smiled. "It's freeing...come on, let's go see if Al needs help." He left Ed's room, leaving Paninya alone.

"Must be nice." She the stood up and followed close behind.

* * *

Leave a review if you feel like it...and try not to feel too bad for me, I have some really great friends by my side...and a pint of vodka in my freezer, so I'm set.


	13. Episode 13 Safe Return

Long story as to why I haven't updated...really sorry, I'm at work now and if I'm caught, I'll get in trouble. Don't mind the spelling errors, I'll fix it as soon as I get my own computer and stop having to sneak around at work.

* * *

Chapter 13 - Safe Return

* * *

"I told you it would work." Aria smiled as she led Edward back into his own room.

"You're a lifesaver...at least for Al, because if I got in trouble for covering for him, I would have killed him..." He glanced at the inhabitance of his room. "Speaking of which, what the hell are you still doing up, and in my room no less." Ed scowled at his brother, zoned out in front of his TV.

"Shh, pretty colors...you ever notice that the TV is just made out of tiny squares." He squinted and leaned forward. "Never noticed before...wow...look."

Russ snickered. "This is amusing." He nudged Al in the head, he bobbed a little and then went back to a regular sitting position.

"I knew you had more than one drink, look at you, you're wasted." Ed accused him.

"I only had one..." Al reitterated.

"He's telling the truth. Can't you smell the smoke on his cloths?" Leo pointed at him.

"Smoke?" Ed inhaled through his nose. "Yeah...what the hell were you buring, you smell like a burnt pine tree."

"Do you know what a hot box is?" Al questioned his brother.

Ed thought for a moment. "Not really."

"I didn't either till it was too late to prevent anything." He shrugged.

Russell piped up again. "It's where a few people sit in a car and light a joint with the windows up. Get's you really high. And then we have what happens in Al's case, where they hotbox an entire baby barn."

Al nodded solomly. "I just went out there to sit with the guys, and one of them lit up, what I thought was a cigarette, but then again, I should have asked when I noticed that they told me not to open the door. Yeah...I feel like I'm merging with the floor."

"What?!" Paninya said suddenly, followed up by a laugh. "I guess they call it dope for a reason." She stifeled the rest of her laugh.

Edward scoffed. "You can't possibly be that stupid...didn't you notice the difference in the smell of the smoke?"

He shook his head. "The barn was dusty, so before they started, my allergies acted up...I couldn't smell a damn thing...and sorry for messing up the back seat. I don't know why, but after I managed to be let out of the barn, I was so hungry. I couldn't stop eating."

Leo, at that point, came to a realization. "Oh, the munchies. I suppose that makes sence."

"So...how do you feel now?" Aria asked shyly, no sooner did she ask the question was she proded by Paninys, with a sly look on her face.

"Feel? Well, it's hard to discribe...I feel like when I rub up against something, like my cloths or other objects, that tey're petting me back. Or like, I'm sticking to it...it's weird."

The whole group stared strangly at him, except for Russell who nodded. "Yeah, you're pretty high. You'll be fine in the morning...how long did you stay in the hot box?"

Giving a few moments to think about it, he shook his head. "I don't know..." Al was quite confused at the fact he couldn't remember. "...It could have been five minutes...could have been an hour...I remember doing things while I was in there, I remember talking...but I don't know how long it all took...that's weird."

"Don't worry about it." Russ gave him another nudge. "You'll be fine."

* * *

Slowly, Al opened his eyes to meet the morning. "Uhh..." He yawned and was met with a horrible taste in his mouth, almost like he'd been swishing with glue. "Ehh..." He swung his legs over th side of the bed and it felt a little strange. "That's weird..." He moved his fingers around and tilted his ehad from side to side. The high feeling that he expirenced last night, still was with him in the morning. "The hell..." He stood up and walked for his door, his legs felt like rubber and buckeled beneath him as he walked. He closed his door behind him after leaving the room, only to be met with Ed, who was waking up at the same time just a little ways down the hall.

"Morning...how you feel?" Ed rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Funny..." Al balanced himelf as he headed for the bathroom, he needed to get the taste of whatever it was in his mouth, gone.

"Yeah, Russell said you 'd more than likely feel weird in the morning. You're probably burnt out...or still high. He said if you were in there for too long, it would stick with you for a day or more. It's normal...well, as normal as this situation is going to get."

"Oh yeah? Then maybe you can explain this horrible taste in my mough. I brushed my teeth before I went to bed."

"Yes, I can. Pasties. You get it from smoking pot."

"I didn't though." It was true, though Al was exposed to it, he didn't actually put any sort of apparatas close enough to his fact to constitute actually 'smoking' the stuff.

"You're splitting hairs. Just go brush your teeth, I'll get some coffee made."

* * *

Ed threw some coffee grounds in the machine and turned it on, and waited for the boiling water to start trickeling down. The smell of coffee was so comforting in the morning. Espically to his father. He turned around to see his dad with his head down on the table, his arms encircleing it, in all it's painful swoleness. "How you holding up?" Ed smirked as he addressed his father.

"Holding up? I'm not even holding my head up, so you can only imagine." He grumbled.

Ed thought for a moment. "Not really...but you have my sympathies."

There were a few brief moments of silence and then Von piped up again. "Is the coffee done yet?" He asked hopefully.

"No...I just turned it on. You should invest in instant coffee...but then you'd still have to wait for the water to boil." Ed reasoned with himself.

"I'm hungry." Al said as he stretched on his way into the kitchen. The quick rush of blood to his head when doing so in an upright position caused him to nearly double over. "Woo, head rush. So what are you making Ed? Anything good? Bacon, sausauges, eggs...anything?"

Ed blankly stared at him. "Coffee."

All looked disapointed, he sighed. "Good enough." He took a cup from the cupboard and laid it on the counter. "Triple-triple." He said as he left the room.

Edward looked frustrated. "I don't work at Tim Hortons there Al." He frequently got annoyed with Al's pushy attitude.

"Fine, just fill the cup and I'll get it when I'm done."

He could hear Al head into the bacement for some reason, probably to find some cloths, yesterday was the day his folks did the laundry. He heard the coffee begin to percilate and his phone begin to buzz. "Huh?" He picked it up and didn't notice the number right off hand until the name came into play, it was Winry. She sent him a text message. '_come ovr need hlp w/project hurry plz!_' Ed momentairly cringed at the txt-speak but quickly shut his phone again. "Hey dad, mind if I take the van? Aria needs help with some yard work." He lied. Not because his father wouldn't let him see Winry, but if Al asked him where he went, he would more than likely just tell him.

"Coffee first, then you can go."

Ed laughed. "Sure." His dad was usually pretty leinaint with the vheicals, unless he was going somewhere, or if soemthing needed to be done. "Did you want food?"

Giving it a little thought, he spoke up. "Is there still cucumber in the fridge?"

Ed peeked in the fridge. "Uuuhh...yes." He grabbed it from the crisper.

"Good, that, some salt and knife, just leave it on the table...I'll move in a few minutes."

* * *

After tending to his father and brother's coffee, he had taken the van and drove directly to Winry's house. He pulled up along the opposite side of the road rather than using her driveway. It was empty and he knew that her parents owned a vhecial, so he left it open for them. He went up to her door and knoced. No sooner did the second knock land on the door that Winry opened the door, grabbed Ed's arm and pulled him quickly inside. "Did anyone see you?" She questioned him abruptly.

"...no." Edward announced, slightly offended, it was like she was ashamed to have him seen here.

Sensing his discomfort, Wirny smiled. "Dont' take it the wrong way. At Clauses party last night, there was a college boy there who was obessed with me. Wouldn't leave me alone. He even said that he was going to beat up anyone I was dating because HE wanted to date me. As if." She rolled her eyes. "He was an ass, and he was so drunk...I don't know how true what he said was, so it's better safe than sorry. I think his name was Ron...maybe Roy. I can't remember."

Ed nodded, slighlty confused. "Alright then." He didn't understand the ownership some people placed on other people, but he just let it go. Best not to ask qestions, except for what she wanted help with. "So, what's the trouble?"

"AH!" Winry yelled abruptly. "Right. Yesterday my mom decided to cash in her 'complete care' warranty with the Dell laptop because she just wanted a new one. So she takes it to the bathroom, fills the tub up and fires it in...my project is due on Monday."

Ed's eyes widened. "Wait...your warranty covers water damage?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Apparently, it covers acts of stupidity, but not acts of god. If it was to get struck by lightning, it wouldn't be covered, it it gets rained on, not covered, but you through it into a bathtub, you get a whole new system."

He stared blankly for a moment. "Logic was obviously not something they took to heart when making that broken rule up."

"It would seem. But you see, the problem with her doign that, it that my bio project was on it, and she neglected to get me to transfer all my writing, projects and music I downloaded. Everything is GONE! I need to go somewhere after supper for cheerleading, and then I'll be gone till midnight on Sunday...do you think you can help me get it done before supper?"

Ed smiled. "Possibly. But, something's always better than nothing. I take it you have another computer."

"I have three." She smiled.

* * *

Al poked his head back in the kitchen after finding something decent to wear. He still felt strange, but he ignored it, at least he could think straight now. He saw his father sitting at the table eating slices of cucumber and salt. "Where did Ed go?"

Von sipped his coffee and glanced at his son. "Not sure. He just told me that Aria texted him saying she needed help with yard work." He shrugged. "I believe he took the van."

Al caught sight of a small Sanyo phone laying on the counter, brown in color. Quickly snatcing it up, he headed for Ed's text message history. "Let's see here..."

"Alphonse, don't snoop in your brother's phone."

"Hey, if he didn't want me looking at it, he shouldn't have left it here...I should have got the Katana too, my Chocolate sucks..." He proceeded to snoop. "...wait a sec..." He took his phone out of is pocket and slid it up and proceeded to go through his address book. The number that texted his brother just little while ago, matched up with Winry's. Al figured either Winry randomly gave him Aria's number, or Ed was liying. '_Oh, it's on._' He laid his brother's phone on the counter and shoved his phone back in his pocket.

* * *

After three long hours of working on Winry's bio project, they finally decided to relax while it was printed off. "So, did Al say that he enjoyed himself last night?"

He shook his head. "He was too out of it when he got home and I left just as he was getting up in the morning."

"I see." Winry nodded as she took in the information. "So you didn't get a chance to ask him about what he and Clause were doing last night then. I tried calling her, but there's no answer."

Ed's face went pale. "Him and Clause? ...I thought he liked y-- someone else."

Winry shrugged. "I guess not because they were all over one another in the living room and then they went upstairs for a while...do you think anything happened?" Winry folded her arms as she sat on the edge of her bed.

Edward sat with his back facing her vanity with it's three angled mirrors. "If Al managed to get lucky, I'm sure it would have been the first thing out of his mouth...then again, it was potentially with Clause...so maybe that's why he didn't mention anything." Ed thought about it a little more. "Come to think about iit, he didn't seem to be hiding anything. I can't really say one way or the other."

The young blond girl nodded. "I'll try Clause again, see if she's there." Winry checked her belt for her Cell holster, but came up dry. She pointed to her vanity. "Can you pass me my cell?"

He peeked over his shoulder and saw the Razr on the Desk. Picking it up in his hand, he examined it. "It this a Razr version 1? They don't make these anymore."

She nodded and took the little piece of equipment from Ed's hand. "Yeah, go figure, any cell phone that works, they discontinue...what's teh modle of your phone?"

Ed reached into his pocket. It's a Sanyo Katana...and it's not here. Shit."

"Did you leave it downstairs?" She questioned.

"No, I forgot it on the counter at home, I'm sure of it...I don't remember putting it in my pocket...damn! What if Al finds it? He's nosy, he'll see that you texted me."

She rolled her eyes. "So, I'm allowed to talk to who ever I want."

He nodded in response. "Yeah, well that doesn't stop him from bitching at me. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there." He watched Winry dial Clauses number and then put her on speaker phone.

"Shhhh." Winry shushed him. "If she knows there's anyone else in the room, she won't say a thing."

_'Hello?_' A voice echoed through the speaker at a crisp volume.

'Hey Clause, how you feelin'?" Winry began a casual conversation with Clause then finally managed to work it in such a way that they got on the topic of Al. "Speaking of wasted, did you see Al at all during the evening? I heard he was trashed."

'_Yeah, I did._' She snickered. '_He and the boys went out and hot boxed the barn, he was so stoned. It was funny. Why?_' She questioned, no underliying suspision in her voice.

"That's all? That's good, I heard someone say that you and him went upstais for a while."

_'We did._' She stated. '_I only went down on his though, nothing major...and I also went down on Carlo too, but don't tell anyone. He had a pint of Aquaveet and said he'd share if I did. But who cares, I got something out of it right._'

Ed looked horrified. _'Carlo?_' He mouthed. _'He has a girlfriend_.'

Winry silently nodded as she finished her conversation with Clause. "There you have it." Wirny carefully closed her phone and laid it on her pillow.

"Looks like I have some words that I need to say to Al when I get home."

"Seems so." Winry agreed.

* * *

So yeah, I'll try to update again...this time, I'll be a little quicker about it...and maybe I'll run the spell checker...because this chapter must have been LOADED with errors.

Sorry again. P


	14. Episode 14 Rumors and Lies

Once again, I am being sneaky. :P Sneaking the net at work. I'll try to do this once a week, maybe, if it's not too busy between calls.

But I do want to take this time to say that I have a new boyfriend. :) His name is Jordan and he's really good to me. I love him to death. XD He's a little younger than me, but I really don't care, he's a good guy.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter. I know you guys'll like this one. It really shows Clause's evil side.

* * *

**Chapter 14 - Rumors and Lies**

* * *

Al stood at his front door waiting, patiently, for his brother to return. "He's dead." Alphonse had made a point of letting Ed know that he was really intrested in Winry, so he had no right butting in. He was sure she was starting to warm up to him too. He could hear the hum of the van pull into the yard. He clenched is fist tightly.

"I'm bac-" Ed's greeting was quickly cut off by Al taking a swing at him. Of course, Al was terrible at fighting, so Ed managed to dodge the punch, grab his arm and twist it behind him, bringing him to his knees in pain. "What the hell is your problem?!" Ed bellowed at his sibling.

"My problem is you and your lies!" Al reached into his pocket and pulled out Ed's phone which he climed fromt he counter a short while ago. It revealed the text message that Winry had sent him.

"I was helping her with her bio project you R-tard! Her mom destroyed ehr computer and she had to start from scratch."

"Oh...then why did you lie to Dad?" Al was released and promptly returned Ed phone to him.

"Because I know how reasonable you are. If you found out, I knew you would overreact...and here we are." He helped his twin to his feet. "You knob."

"I'm not a knob...So you know to stay away from her at all other costs, I'm really sure she's starting to come around." Al beamed.

"You really think so? Well, I don't think she's all too intrested in you after what happened last night...between you and Clause."

Al's face went completly white. "Wha-...oh shit...I forgot about that...she saw us?" He panicked slightly.

"Yeah, she did. And she knew you two went upstaris together...what happened Al?" Ed grilled his brother.

Al glanced down the hall to the kitchen door. "I hope dad didn't hear that...come here." He ventured off into the living room and sat in the arm chair. "Something I leard the hard way I guess. Being high fucks with your judgment." Al nodded to himself as he thought hard about what he and Clause actually did.

"Ya think? ...well, obviously not." He scoffed.

"Shut up, I don't see you getting any...we didn't have sex, that I'm sure of...we just-"

Ed cut him off. "I don't want to hear what you did. That's your business. But regardless, Winry thinks you and Clause are an item, so you either have to take what you have and run with it, or you tell Clause that you and her were just a 'one night' thing. Because Winry thinks you and her are serious."

An eye twitch fournd it's way to the right side of Al's face as he was presented with the harsh truth of reality. "But..." He began. "I don't like Black hair, I like fair hair...looks nicer."

SIghing at his brother's shallowness, he flopped back on the coach and laid down. "It's not always about looks you know."

Al agreed with him. "I know, but she's also really mean. I mean, look what she did to your friend Aria."

Ed raised an eyebrow. "To Aria? I didn't know you cared about her."

Al blushed. "I don't." He hesitated. "She's a freak, I dislike freaks."

A look of disgust spread across Ed's face. "She's not a freak!" He defended his friend.

"She wears all black, had black streaks in her hair and hands a 'devil star' around her neck; she's a freak."

Ed rolled his eyes. "It's a pentacle, it has nothing to do with the devil you knob."

"What did I tell you?" Al raised his voice. "I'm not a knob!"

"Well stop acting like one!" Ed retorted.

* * *

As usual, the weekend came and went and school was once again on the agenda. "Hey Al." One of the other boys on the basketball team accosted him. "I heard you and Clause hooked up at her party. Or were you dating before hand?"

"Breda...where did you hear that?" Al hung his head.

The red head shrugged. "No one inpiticular. It's going around the whole school that you two are a 'thing'." He made quotation marks in the air with his fingers.

"Oh really..." He sighed and shut his locker. "Interesting. Come on, let's get to English."

"Come on. You didn't answer my question." Breda caught up to him.

"We're not anything. I don't even like her. She's way too mean. Even for my liking."

"Mean? Of, what she did to Aria? Do you like Aria or something?" He questioned him yet again.

Al sighed. "You know, my brother asked me the same thing. No. I don't. She's a freak."

"Nice little bod though." Breda snickered.

Al sighed. "Didn't take the time to notice. The black clothing makes everything blur all together."

He shook his head as the two of the weaved through the crowded. "Check her out next time. It wouldn't be a good idea to date her, it would ruin your reputation, but still, nice to look at."

Al though about it for a moment as he passed by a sting of lockers with a series of stickers on them. "Maybe. I'll look, but I'm not getting my hopes up."

* * *

"So is it true? Are you and Clause getting married?" Riza questioned Al from behind him in English class.

"What?!" He blurted out loudly causing the entire class to turn around. "Sorry-sorry." He lowered the volume of his voice. "What? We're not even dating...who told you that?"

She shrugged. "No one really, the girls were talking about it at the cheer meet on Sunday."

Al huffed. "No, we're not getting married, not even close." He turned around and went back to his work.

* * *

"Hey Al, congrats!" Another boy from the team came up to him and gave him a firm pat on the back.

"Someone help me." He muttered to himself.

"I didn't ask before, but, when's she due?" The boy inquired.

"Due?" Al looked horrified. It would seem that even eating his lunch in peace was out of the question today.

"Yeah, due...the baby. You two are having a kid, right?" The boy seemed confused at Al's lack of an answer.

"Thats it!' He slammed his fists down on the table and stood straight up. "Where is she?!" He glanced around the cafeteria for the familiar face. Spotting her off in the corner of the room, he rapidly approched her. "Oh, Clause." He spoke in the most polite tone he could muster.

"Yeees Al." She sounded all too pleased with herself.

"Could I talk to you...just for a minute." He could mask his voice, but the anger in his eyes was too dominant to mask. "Come on." He cocked his head in such a way that it beckoned her to follow him.

"Sure." She smiled at the rest of the group and she passed them by. She felt her arm be snatched up and her being drug allong behind Al.

Another random student took a look at what was happening and waved. "You guys got your tickets to Hawaii already? Have a good trip!"

Al paused and stared at the student, murder in his gaze. "We're not going anywhere!" He barked at the igornant student who in turn quickly faced the other direction and walked off.

Al made them both leave the lunch room and let her directly to the stairs where it was nearly desolate during the lunch hour. "What the fuck Clause?!"

"What the fuck? What do you mean?" She planted her fists firmly on her hips.

"People seem to think stuff about us when there is NO stuff. Why did you spread those rumors?!" Al was on to what she was doing, playing dumb.

She huffed. "I was just having a little fun, it keeps things interesting."

"For you!" He yelled at her. "I don't even like you like that, not even close. And after this little incident, I don't think I like you at all!"

"Al! I was jus--" She tried to speak her peace, but Al had no part of it.

"Shut up! You had no right saying those things about me! Sure we hooked up at your party briefly, but that wasn't anything serious, I told you that before we even went upstairs. Mabye somewhere down the road, there might have been something, but now I know for sure that there won't." Al fibbed a little, but it got his point across. He wanted Winry, there was no maybe."You giving me head does NOT constitute us dating. Espically when I state prior to the act, that it means nothing." He paused briefly after sounding a whole lot like Ed. "Regardless, as of right now, I consider you an apuantince, you're not even a friedn anymore." With that said, before Clause could get one tear out, she exited the stair well, slaming the heavy door behind him.

Clause stood there, devastated. She really had a crush on him and hearing him say that tore right into her. She began bawling. "This isn't what I wanted to happen!!" She screamed and had it echo in the seemingly empty stairwell. In a fit of rage and tears, she took a step to go downstairs to the bacement to calm herself down, but missed the step and tumbled down the 20 hard concreat stairs to the laning below.

She laid on the floor, stunned momentairly, from the shock of the fall. She brought a hand to her lip, the tast of blood was in her mouth. Looking at her fingers, she saw that she had smashed her lip on the way down. "How can I make this better." She rubbed the red on her fingers together. "...or...how can I make it go away." She smiled deviously. "I'll ruin you Al!" She quickly reached and tore the side of her shirt and then reached down and removed one of her shoes. "I'll make you regret ever crossing me!" She smiled deviously.

No point in asking you to guess, you know what she's plotting. DX  
I haven't gotten lots of reviews in a while because I haven't been updating, so let's have some reviews to see if I've gotten rusty or not. (Thanks Oki, good to see you stuck with me!)


	15. Episode 15 Game On

OK, I tried to proof-read this one as best I could, but like I said, I'm at work so my access to anything is limited. I don't even have access to a word processer. I'm basically doing this on notepad. (Is frustrated) DX

Anyway, thanks for the Tsunami of reviews. And here I wa afraid I was forgotten. I've been a little depressed lately, but you guys cheered me right up. Thanks.

Here's another chapter for my loyal reviewers. :)

* * *

**Chapter 15 - Game On **

Al sighed as he finished off his bottle of chocolate milk while talking to his friends. "So, I'm pretty sure I got my message across, looked like she was going to cry, but that's her own fault."

"Why would she even say those things. I mean, if she liked you, wouldn't it make sence to not talk shit about you behind your back." Breda folded his arms. "It's weird."

"Stupid is what it is." Al corrected him.

Another boy from the team, Kain, piped up. "Clause doesn't know how to deal well with people and she likes to play games. She's really immature." He bashed her irritatating nature.

"That's true...and she likes to lie a lot." Al glared across the room at the rest of the cheerleading team, Winry was in their midst. It was like the diamond in the rough situation. There were a few other nicer girls on the team, but Winry managed to out-shine them all. She had the nicest hair, the finest curves and the largest bust; she was like something from a fantasy. She was perfect, too perfect. Al pondered for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Breda questioned him.

"Huh? Nothing, just thinking..." Before he could expand on his initial thought, the bell rang, telling therm that socializing was over, and class was going to ensue. "Math...what do you have?"

"Bio." Breda answered with a grimmace.

Al perked up a little. "Hey, you're in Winry's Bio calss...could you ask her what Clause's deal is?" Al figured that if anyone was going to know, it would be her.

"Sure dude...later." That being said, the red headed boy got up and left.

Al cracked his kuckels stood up form his seat. "This should be intresting."

* * *

Al sat back in his chair as the teacher began explaining the significance of matricies. He slumped his head off to the side and glanced out the window of the top floor of their school. There was a flock of starlings passing by as he stared off in a daze. 'I wish I was anywhere else but here' He thought to himself. The rumors that Clause spread about the two of them really got to him and he just felt like going home and sleeping.

The buzzer at the front of the classroom sounded and the principal 's voice resonated over the speaker. 'Mr. Garumann, is Alphonse Hohenheim there with you?'

The older teacher caught eye contact with Al who looked a little surpried. "Yes he is."

'Could you send him down to the office. Have him bring his things.' Mr. Lang's voice sounded a little stern as he spoke.

Al closed his book and wondered what he would be called down for; from the sounds of it, it looked like he was in trouble. 'That was quick.' He thought as he packed up his things. He was amazed that his request to be somewhere else was answered exceptionally quickly. As he left the room, he thought about all the reasons he would be in trouble. His mind kept flashing back to Clause telling some lie about them doing something naughty in a calssroom, or something along that line.

He rounded the corner to the office and saw Caluse standing next to a couple of people in uniform. Al's heart immedatly sank. Clause looked like she'd been put through the ringer; a bloodied lip, a torn shirt and even a missing shoe. He was then quite concerned for all of a second. He thought that maybe someone DID beat her up, but he knew that they wouldn't be calling him down for no good reason, she was blaming this one on him. He could just feel it. Al held back his rage, if he showed agression, he knew it wouldn't help his case. "What's going on?" He asked as if he didn't know.

"You tell us son?" The tall dark skinned police officer towered over him.

He looked at Clause and then back to officer. "I wish I knew." He hoped again that his wish would be answered as quickly as it was last time; this time, with a more desireable outcome.

"This young lady here tells us that you were pretty rough with her; went so far as to throw her down a flight of stairs. Care to explain yourself before we get in contact with your parents?"

Swing and miss for that wish granting. "I didn't. Why would I? If I did that, I would get expelled and then booted from the basketball team. It doesn't make sence. She's liying." He refrenced to her.

Caluse cringed as Al motioned his arm in her direction. "You pulled me from the lunch room because you were mad that I told people we were going out...so you..." She started crying again.

"Several people saw you take her into the stairwell and a few more saw only you emerge from the stairs shortly there after. From the sounds of it, her story pans out, your's doesn't. You're coming with us, and we'll be getting in contact with your parents too." He truend his attention back to Clause.

The principal, who was standing in the door of his office behind Clause chimed in. "You'll be fortunate if she doesn't press charges. But as of right now, you're suspended till further notice." He rested a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

The police officer took firm hold of Alphonse's arm and led him out of the building and into the back of the police car that was situated in the main parking lot; they sat him on the edge of the seat and applied a zip tie around his two hands.

"..." Al was at a loss for words, so he just sat quietly in the back seat. The two police officers sat solomly in the front seat. "I didn't do anything to her...at least not physical. I yelled at her, told her to stop spreading rumors and then I left her to cry in the stairs, I didn't hit her." Al defended himself.

"Save it for when we get you to HQ." The other police officer said with bite.

* * *

"I am here under false pretenses! So before you start yelling, hear me out!" Al whipped around and pointed a finger at his parents and accompaning police-like escort, he looked like a higher ranking officer, the constable if the sign on his desk was current.

Von and Trisha were shocked, no sooner had they entered the room that they were yelled at. "Alright...what's a 'false pretense'." Von asked. He spoke English very well, but there still were a few words that caught him off guard.

"He means he was wrongly accused." Trisha clairified as she took her seat on Al's right side; Von on the left.

"Alright Alphonse, let's hear your piece." The constable sat behind his desk and folded his hands as if to say _'this is going to be good_.'

Al sighed and began. "On Saturday, I went to a party she had. When we got to school on Monday, she went around telling everyone that we hooked up at her place. We **didn't**." He put emphases on that part of his speech. "She also said that we were going out, planning on getting married and even that she was pregnant. None of those things are true. I got pissed off at her and took her aside at lunch because I didn't want to embarass her in front of a crowd. The stairs are dead at lunch, so I fugured there would be best. I basically told her to stop it. I left before she could say anything, I didn't hurt her. Maybe she threw herself down the stairs just so she could blame it on me. She's a huge liar, just ask around."

* * *

Al sat in the back seat of the SUV, his head down and staring out the window at the road passing by beneath them. Until Clause came to a decission as to what she was going to do, Al was free to go for the most part. He did however need to fill 50 hours of community service, which he was _not_ looking forward to. "You guys believe me right?" He said quietly, still somewhat lost in thought.

Von spoke up. "I don't really see any reason that you would be liying...I just wish this wasn't happening. Was there something else you could have done to avoid all this?" Von shook his head in frustration.

"Went along with the lies, agreed to date her...or something like that." Al said with a grimmace.

"Well...any reason why not?" His father questioned.

"Because she's psychodic." Al refrenced the situation.

"Right-right. Lies and what not. Trish?" He looked at his wife staring blankly out the window.

"I don't know...it just seems a little too convienent..." She said despondantly.

"...come-on-Mom, why would I hit a girl? I don't like fighting anyway." He leaned froward, closer to the front seat. "You've got to believe me."

She flipped down the sun visor and looked in the mirror at her son. "You nearly knocked your brother out yesterday, just as he walked in the door. I need to see a little proof that you have things under control Al. But for now, you'll be grounded, no internet."

Al hung his head. "Sure..." He felt so helpless, he was starting to wish that he did knock Clause out.

* * *

Laying on his side in his bed, Al pondering how he was going to get out of this terrible situation. He tossed and turned back and forth, he just couldn't get comfortable. Peeking at the clock, it was only three, so that meant that Ed still wasn't home. As often as they argued, he still found it a good idea to ask for Ed's advice whenever anything went ill-favored. This was the perfect situation.

Just as he was about to doze off, his phone began to ring. The ring was undefined, so it was no one he knew that was important as far as he was concerned. Grabbing the phone he slid it open and held it to his ear. "It's not after 6, you're using my minutes." Aside from the normal 'Hi' or 'Hello', he greeted the person on the other line.

_'Hey Al, how you doing?'_ Clause's voice sounded over the little speaker.

He felt a pang of rage shoot through his shoulders and right up the back of his neck. "You've got a lot of nerve calling me...unless you're calling me to call off this little game."

_'Maybe.'_ She said in a sweetly sickening voice.

Al perked up a ltitle. "Really?"

_'If you agree to go out with me that is. I know I had to go to an extreem to do this, but I guess if this is the only way, I'll take whatever I want, however I get it.'_ She exhaled into the speaker. _'If you agreed to go out with me, I'll tell everyone I was just looking for attention. You get off scott free, and you get a pretty girlfriend.'_

A furrowed his brow. "...What's the catch?"

He heard her snicker. _'No catch really...but if you try to break up with me afterward, I'll just tell everyone you threatened me into dating you and that you made me lie. Then you'll be back at square one. I always get what I want, don't forget that...oh, and I'm calling from a pay phone, so don't bother marking down the number. I'll give you a few days to think about it.'_ That said, she hung up the phone in his ear.

Al slid his phone shut and huffed loudly. "What a bitch."

There you have it, her rash thought seems to come together in some strange madness that is her plan. Surprisingly enough, I have a way out for Al. XD I'm going to kill Clause. oO...kidding, read on to find out how it pans out.


	16. Episode 16 Karma

Here, yet again, is another chapter. I think I'm getting better at this whole 'proof reading' thing. :)

This little arc is closing here and a new one shall begin after a potential chapter of filler. I haven't quite decided yet, but stick around to find out. XD (I kind of want to build on Russell's character some...maybe I might do everyone...hmmm...thinking...)

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me, hope you like it. Honestly, I found this one a little stiff...I tried fixing it, but I guess you'll just have to bare with me. I need to watch more 'Judge Judy' DX

* * *

**Chapter 16 - Karma

* * *

**

The front door swung open and Ed appeared in the opening. "Mom...Dad?" He questioned as he closed the door behind him, frantically searching for his parents.

"Kitchen." Trisha said from out of sight.

Ed proceeded to the kitchen where his parents were sitting at either side of the table, and from the looks of it, they were deciding on what they wanted to do about the whole situation with their son. "I heard Al got taken away by the police in the middle of second last calss. What's up with that?" Ed dropped off his book bag by the kitchen door.

"Well." Von began. "From what the police report says, and from what we've gathered from talking to the school, this girl, Clause, spread a rumor about him and then, in response, he beat her up." Von rubbed his eyes from beneath his glasses and sighed. "It looks like he actually did, but I wish he didn't."

Ed was quite skeptical about the whole thing. "That's what I heard...but come onAl...beat up a girl? ...I don't think so."

"Go and talk to him Ed, see if he actually did this. He'll lie through his teeth at us, but I'm sure you can see right through him." His mother knew him all too well. Al did have a bad habit of fibbing, but dispite the fact _they_ couldn't see through it, he was like a sheet of glass to his brother.

"...Alright." Ed sighed and grimly headed upstairs. He was really hoping that this was all some big elaborate plot to torture him, because if it wasn't, it was looking like Al was in for some community service and suspesion from what he heard at school. "Alphonse?" He rapped lightly on his brother's door.

"Come in." A droned voice spoke through the frame.

Ed entered the room and shut the door behind himself, his hand still clutching the knob behind his back. "So...what's going on?"

"Clause has everyone convinced that I threw her down some stairs...and now she might be pressing charges." Al spoke with his arm firmly draped over his eyes, blocking out any amount of light. "What the hell should I do?"

Sighing, he thought to himself. "First off...I need you to look at me." He watched Al sit up in is bed and rub the blurriness from his eyes. "Tell me...did you do anything to her?"

"Yes." He answered honestly. "I yelled at her."

"Did you hurt her?" Ed clairified.

"Yes." He answered honestly again.

"...physically hurt?" Ed clairfied again.

"No." Once again, an honest answer. "The only time I laid a finger on her is when I took her arm and led her to the stairs. I didn't even squeeze tightly." He flopped back on his bed. "Now that I think about it, I should have squeezed...hard...right around that fucking neck of hers." Al sat up again. "You want to know what else? She had the nerve to call me at about three, and say that she'd call off this whole thing if I agreed to date her. And that she would tell everyone I threatened her if I broke up with her, putting me right back to where I started out."

Ed raised an eyebrow. "That's messed up."

Al nodded. "Yeah." He whole heartedly agreed. "You know, the more I think about it, the more I realize that there is something seriously wrong with her."

Giving that thought a moment to sink in. "It's like she doesn't have the ability to reson...it is a little strange. But...regardless, you're telling the truth. You can't hide anythign from me." Ed smiled. "Don't worry, we'll request a polygraph test, that'll prove her wrong."

Al brightened up. "That's a great idea. See, that's why I keep you around. Great problem solving skills."

He sweat-dropped. "Glad I'm so valuable to you."

* * *

"S_ooo_...from the results..." The judge looked from paper to paper, trying to make, what would seem to be, heads or tails of the whole thing. "You're both telling the truth."

Ed face palmed. "So she just fessed up and told the truth? Amazing."

"Not quite..." The man behind the podium neatly laid the papers side by side. "Clause is telling the truth, she was assulted." Judge Heston glanced at the other paper. "And Alphonse here apparently didn't assult her at all."

"For crying out loud." Von stuffed his hands into his pockets. "What do we do now? ...Sir...your honor." Von still wasn't familiar with court customs.

Mr. Heston shook his head. "From my standpoint, the charges are still justified."

Ed rolled his eyes. "What is this? Salem witch trials? He's innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent."

"Unfortunatly, he may not be proven guilty, but the evidence shows that he very well could be." He gathered his files up and stacked them neatly in the center of the podium.

"So you'd rather condem an innocent man than let a guilty one go. Doesn't Al's polygraph mean anything?" Ed tried his best to reason with the judge.

"How about we let the jurry decide. We'll take an hour lunch and report back here at 1400 hours." He slammed the gavel on his desk.

"Son of a..." Ed sat back on his chair and leaned so it was balancing on it's two hind legs. Seeing as how it was just juvinal court, lawyers were not being involved, so Ed didn't mind speaking on his brother's behalf, he was just that much better with words.

"Thanks Ed...I think I may just end up giving into her demand." He glimpsed her out the corner of his eyes. "I'll just have to swallow my pride. I mean, she does give good head."

Ed squinted his eyes tightly shut. "I didn't need to hear that."

"Well it's out there now." Al smirked briefly and then quickly resorted back to his initial gloomy state. "What the hell did I do to deserve this?" He checked over his shoulder at his parents, who had collaberated at the back of the room.

"At the risk of sounding like a snob...it's because you didn't listen to me. I told you going to that party was a bad idea." Ed stood up behind the desk and straightened out the front of his red, button-up shirt.

"No, you said it was a bad idea to drink." Al corrected him.

"Whatever. You still shouldn't have went. The only reason you did was to hook up with Winry. And trying to hook up with the friend of the girl who invited you, who is infatuated with you, is a bad idea." Ed looked down at his brother who was still sitting at in his chair.

"...maybe...I wish this would blow over." He folded his hands and shut his eyes.

"Devine intervention isn't likely." He scoffed.

"Hey, it worked before, but it turned out bad...so I figured I'd do this-" He wiggled his folded hands. "-I might get a better outcome."

* * *

"Clause." Aria spoke meekly from behind her.

Clause whipped around to come face to fact with none other than the short little red-headded girl. "Uh, what do you want?" She asked condesendingly.

"It's about this whole abuse thing." Aria examined Clause as she stood in front of her. She had a little patch of gause covering a supposed bump on her head, a sling on her right arm and from what she could tell, she was sporting a limp, favoring her left side. "Al didn't hit you, you know that. Just drop this. It's only going to come back on you...badly." She spoke in a shy tone, modest even.

"...What do you mean come back on me? Is that a threat? Listen here you little freak, back off!" She snapped.

Aria composed herself. "A threat? No. I'm a firm beliver of karma."

Clause looked down on Aria. "Well not everyone believes in your devil worshiping, blood drinking cult, so keep it, and your little musings, to yourself. Besides, this doesn't concern you." She waved 'goodbye' to her with the four fingers on her left hand.

She inhaled deeply. "...I don't believe in the devil--but it actually is my business. I-"

"What? Do you have a thing for Al?" She accused her.

Aria blushed a little. "No. It's just..." She gathered her thoughts. "Ed's a good friend of mine, and this situation is effecting him badly too. Please, just be kind, do the right thing and drop all of this."

She apporached her, limp intact, and got really close to the smaller girls face. "Alphonse did hit me, and he's going to pay." She stood up straight agian.

Heart racing, Aria nodded. "Fine...we'll take it this rout then." With a quick turn on her heel, she walked off to an adjacent hallway. She clutched her chest, trying to quell the beat of her heart. It wasn't normal for Aria to lose her cool, but that red-head temper shon through as brightly as ever just then. She reached into her pocket and clutched the contents of it tightly. "Oh karma, please don't fail me now."

* * *

"Welcome back everyone." Judge Heston greeted the court room. He stared down on the unknowing audience. This time, there were two new members.

Russell and Aria sat in the back row, they had managed to cut afternoon classes to come to Al's hearing. "You got the cord right?" She spoke quietly to him.

"Definitly." He refrenced the cord, hanging around his neck. "I want this back when you're done, make for good accessorizing." He smiled; Aria laughed.

"Order!" The judge hollared.

"The Christmass party needs to quiet down." Clause snapped.

Russ and Aria exchanged glances. The red hair and the green hair, they both realized it was only a matter of time before someone made a crack at it.

"Does anyone have anything else to add? If not, we'll allow the jurry to pass their verdict." He saw Aria at the back stand up. "Oh...we do. You may proceed to the front." He flagged her on.

Aria removed the cord from around Russell's neck and headed up the front of the room. "Your honor, may I have the use of a television with AV ports?" She held up the white and yellow cords.

The judge glanced off to the bodyguard standing on his left side. "Get the TV from the lounge." A minute passed slowly. "Is this in Claus's defense? Or in Alphonse's?"

Aria smiled at Clause. "It's for Al."

He solomly nodded and leaned back. "This should be intresting." The guard re-entered the room with the TV and stand with a squeaky wheel.

Aria flicked the television on, plugged the cabled into the front with their corrsponding colors. She pushed a few buttons on her phone and then plugged the cord into her cell. The image on her phone showed up on the screen. "I was in the stairwell at lunch on Monday, trying to see if I could get a signal, when I heard someone enter the stairwell with me." She pushed the play button. "This is what transpired." She stood out of the way of the TV and allowed the rest of the court room to see.

The initial start of the video was viewing the lower portion of Aria's face, but then the video slid sideways through the rungs of the railing and pointed down till the two in view on the screen appeared to be Al and Clause. The audio was choppy, but the video was relatively clear, though a little shaky and off centre.

"My camera work isn't the best." Aria pointed to the screen. "Here they are, no one's touching, she's not hurt." Aria caught a glimpse of Clause over her shoulder and it seemed like she was sweatting bullets.

The video played on "-_-does NOT constitute us dating. Espically when I state --act, that-means nothing._" There was a pause. "_Regardless, as of right now, I consider you an aquantince, you're not--friend anymore._" It then showed Al exiting the stairwell and slaming the heavy door behind him.

Clause was then sobbing. "_This isn't what I wanted to happen!!_"

"And then." Aria pointed to the screen where Clause tripped and sent herself down the stairs, tear her own shirt and state very clearly that she set the whole thing up. "There you have it."

"You bitch!" Clause screamed and began to quickly approach her. Quickly, the guard came between the two girls. "This isn't what happened!! She's liying!"

Clause's mother, Izumi, stood up in the crowd. "Clause! Please sit down." She asked in desperation. "Your honor, our daughter has been trying to come off her medication for the last several months, but after this incident, it's clear to me that she wasn't ready."

"Medication? For what?' He inquired.

Her father spoke up. "She's a mild schitzofrenic. A pathological liar. We've been trying to wien her off the meds, but she's right back on it after this. We just didn't know what actually happened." The larger man laid a hand on his wife's shoulder.

The judge took in the information. He looked at Clause, back to Al and then to Aria. "All accusations against Alphones Hohenheim are lifted. Clause will be put back on her medication and follow up with me with imporvments. Open and shut." He slammed the gavel down, signifiying that everyone was free to go.

"That's it? She doesn't even get a slap on the hand." Al stood up at the desk, he was outraged.

"Eat your salad Al." Ed begrudgingly ordered.

"But--ugh...fine." He sat back down.

Aria approached the two brothers. She could see the parents talking and waxing over the situation with phrases like '_we just didn't know_' '_sorry for the misunderstanding_'. "So...how does it feel to be free?" She questioned Al.

"...Unfufilling." Al sulked, then smiled at Aria. "But thanks. I really appreciate it. I just wish she would have had to pay some sort of price." He quickly clasped his hands together.

"Everybody gets one there Al." Ed smirked.

Al unfolded his hands. "Dammit." They laughed.

Ed glanced at the intresting cord in Aria's hand. "Where did you get a cord like that?" He watched her hold up the makshift cord.

"That's my doing." Russ approached the rest of the group. "I spliced a couple of cords together and cracked her phone to display on the TV. Technology is so much fun to minipulate." He smiled.

"It would seem so." Ed agreed.

Al caught a glimpse of Aria's phone in her hand. "Hey...what model is that?" It was beginning to look like he like everyone else's phone but his own.

Aria held up the cell. "This?" She said, flashing the phone towards him, light orange for the top piece and pale yellow underneath. "It's the 'Motorola Karma', never failed on me yet." Aria smiled at Al.

* * *

There you have it...I think I managed to get the spelling errors as best I could.  
So, tell me what you think.


	17. Episode 17 Circular Knot

Ok...this one is a long one. However, it's going to give you insight on the lifestyles of the other characters in this story. Bring you down on the level and give you a view into each one of their lives. I like how I set this one up, it really does the title of the chapter justice.

It honestly made me smile.

Hope you like it. :)

* * *

**Chapter 17 - Circular Knot

* * *

**

Aria sat back on her new game room furniture and sighed in relaxation. She had been having a great day and it was finally time to die down. The legal situation with Al warmed itself over and she felt good about herself. Being sneaky every now and again really paid off. Ed was very thankful to her; not that Al was going to be locked away, she just saved him from listening to Al complain about having to do something for someone else for nothing in return.

The more she thought about that line of reasoning, it made her realize that Al still had a lot of growing up to do. It wasn't always about yourself. The more she thought about that, it made her realize that Clause was the same way; thoguh she was sick, apparently. Aria was a little skeptical, but if things got better from there on out, she didn't see it necessary to dwell on it.

Laying back, she caught a glimpse of of Jean heading down the stairs. "Yo." She greeted him in an informal manner, friendly just the same.

"Yo." He replied in the same tone. "So...I asked your mother to marry me this afternoon."

Aria shot up from the horozontal position she was sporting and knelt down on the coach, leaning over it's arm. "And? How did it go?" She sounded hopeful.

Jean reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring box, the same one in which he had showed her a while ago.

"No..." She said with sorrow. Jean was such a nice guy, and he really didn't deserved a rejection. "I'm sorry..."

Jean smirked and quickly popped the box open, revealing an empty shell. "She didn't need the box."

Aria's eye's lit up and she lept off the coach at Jean, trapping him in a vice like hug. "Aaaah!" She yelled in delight. "That's so awesome!"

He hugged her back. Her head was on level with his, so her feet were nearly two feet off the ground. "Yes it is." He carefully let her down only to notice the tears in her eyes. "You gonna be ok?" He smiled at her as he watched her clear off her face.

"Yes." She sniffeled a little. "I'm so happy for your two. Mom really needed some structure to her life, and I know you'll make her happy." She smiled warmly at her 'step-fatehr-to-be'.

"I'm glad I have your blessing with this." He gave her one last hug. "We haven't decided on a date as of yet, but I'll be sure to keep you posted."

"Oh! I have to call Paninya. She'll ba happy to know, and maybe..." Aria's face went blank. "I'll talk to you later, ok?" She was released from the friendly hug and she headed upstairs.

"See ya." She heard him say in confusion from halffway up the stairs.

Aria quickly scuddled off to her room and shut the door. Grabing her phone off the desk and flipping it open, she began dialing Bunny's number. "Pick up...come on...it's seven, it's free." She chanted through the phone, as if Paninya could hear her words.

_'Yello._' She answered in a casual tone.

"Hey Paninay...guess what?" Aria asked.

_'What?'_ She refused to guess.

"Mom's getting married." She said in such a way that she figured Bunny was going to catch on with what she was about to imply.

_'Kay...why do you sound distressed? I thought you liked Jean.'_ Paninya questioned

"Mom's getting married...she's friends with your mom...maybe she's going to invite her. You said that you wanted some closure...maybe this might be your way to finding her again." Aria remembered that Reanna and Santisha, Paninya's mom, had been friends since they were in elementary school, there was a really good chance of this plan working.

There was a few seconds of silence. _'You're right. I need to get a hold of her. Dad's having a hard time paying the bills, so this would be a good way to get her to pay child support. She has to pay it till I'm eighteen._' She was silent for a brief moment. '_This could work...you have to make sure she invites her, drop a few hints would ya'?'_

Aria smiled. "Sure. I figured you'd find that interesting."

_'Thanks Aria. I may not care to see her, but I'm just pissed she ditched dad._' She Paused. _'Speaing of which, I left dad in the kitchen alone, I have to go help him finish the supper dishes.'_

"We'll talk tomorrow at school." She sat on the edge of her bed.

_'Sure. Later._' Paninya said.

"Bye." Sighing, she flipped her phone shut.

* * *

Paninya hit the end button on her phone and laid it on the desk. Everyone else went with a flip phone, while she stuck with her bar phone. She leaned in her closet and grabbed a sweater. Pulling it over her head, she headed back downstairs.

"Where'd you go?" He father asked as she re-entered the kitchen

She hooked her thumb behind her. "I was cold, so I went to go get a heavier shirt." She lied. She didn't mind the extra layer, she just didn't want her father knowing that Aria called and told her about Santisha. Bunny was just thankful her father didn't hear the phone ring, so she was able to keep this potential meet a secret. Paniny's father told her to just drop the entire situation, and that he didn't care. She, however, still did, it wasn't at all fair for him. Rolling up her sleevs, she sunk her hands back into the cooling dishwater.

"You don't mind washing do you?" He asked quaintly.

"No, it's ok. You washed the morning dishes." She said politely, handing him a wet plate.

"If you change your mind, just tell me." He said as he placed the newly dried dish in it's proper place. Casual conversation seemed to elude the two of them for a while until there was a slight knock at the door. "I'll get it." He laid the drying cloth down and made his way over to the side door, the one in which was most frequently used. Upon opening the door, he came face to face with none other than Leo.

"Hey." He raised a hand and waved. "Mom wanted me to drop off some of her chilli." He held out the large container of the spicy mixture. Even through her pain and fraility, she still managed to ook up a storm.

"Thank you." Justin took the container from his daughter's friend. "Did you want to come in?" He refrenced the rest of his house to Leo.

He smiled in return. "Nah, sorry. Mom's got me running this stuff around to everyone, so I have to get going before curfew...but." He peeked into the kitchen at Paninya. "Do you want a drive to school tomorrow there Bunny? Ed said he's getting the Van."

"Sure." She said through the mess of dishes.

"Cool, I'll be sure to tell him. See ya tomorrow." Leo waved and headed back down the stairs and into his car, rather, his mother's car. He heard the door close quietly behind him.

Leo didn't mind driving, his mother was took weak to drive a vhecial, so it was up to him to taxi her and his brother around.

Leo pulled out of the driveway and headed down the road, all the while, wondering why it was so important that he drop that one off first. It seemed that his mother, Aisha, had a soft spot for Paninya's father. Not in a romantic sence, but rather in sympathy. Leo had lost his father in a mall bombing four years ago, shortly before his little borther was born, so she sympathized with him.

Leo's father wasn't able to live with his family any longer because his uncle, and only living relative, was on his death bed. So for the last four years of his life, Leo didn't see his father. Luckily, they had received their grant shortly before he left, so living in and of itself didn't become anymore difficult.

Adil was a good man, but sadly was met with such a terible end. If not for his mother and younger brother, along with the support of his friends at the time, Leo wouldn't have made it. Depression was a terrible thing to deal with, espically at such an impressionable age, but he pulled through.

He owed a lot to his friends, so he tried his hardest to keep them all together.

Finally, he made it back to his own place, a nice modern style, two story house, situated in a quiet part of town, only a few blocks away from the hospital. If the car was out of comission, they could just hoof it the whole way there and not be dead tired upon arrival.

Leo finished all of the deliveries and then finally made it all the way to his house and was greeted by his little brother at the door. "Hey brother." He hugged onto his leg.

"Hey there little guy, how come you're still up? It's gettin' late." He smiled as he placed a hand on the four year old's head.

"Mum's sleepin' so I was sneaky." Rick smiled in a cute way.

Rick was a good kid, he was sneaky at times, but he was four, so it was expected of him. Not that he ever caused any real trouble. "Come on, you better scoot off to bed. Git." He shooed him along.

"Ok." He smiled and gave his brother's leg one more hug and then headed upstairs.

"Night." Leo walked into the living room to see his mom, laying lifelessly on the arm chair. She liked to doze off in that spot, but it still looked erie when she did. Carefully approaching her, he nudged her slightly and she stirred from her restful sleep. "Mom?"

"Oh." She sat up carefully, her hair fasened within the head wrap, the one she was acustomed to wearing, framing her face as she made eye contact with her oldest. "I fell asleep again. Sorry."

He nodded. "No problem...do you need help up the steps?" He held out a hand.

She smiled warmly at Leo. "Thank you." She took his hand and feebely stood up.

He really didn't mind helping her up the stairs when she was too tired to do it herself; he was just thankful that she woke up when he shook her. He knew that there might be a day when that won't happen, but until that day came, he would remain by her side, helping her step by step.

After helping his mother to her room, he went into his own room and laid back on the bed, finally relaxing after delivering various types of food and baked good to friends and the few family members they had in this country. In his own opinion, his mother was the best cook he'd ever met.

Making a quick motion of getting into his pyjamas, Leo made a straight line for bed. No sooner had he started to doze off when he started hearing a small tapping on his window. Groggily, he kneeled down on his bed and peeked through the curtain right at the head of his bed. Yet another pebble was thrown directly at him, fortunatly, the window was in the way.

Opening the window, he spoke through the screen. "It's late dude, what's up?" He said sleepily.

"Not a whole lot, ya busy?" Russell spoke form the front yard.

"Kind of...sleep and what not." Leo looked behind him to the rest of the bed, where he wished he was.

"Aah, come on. I gotta hunt down my little brother, he wandered off again." Russ jammed his hands into his black jeans pockets. "Wanna drive to the park?" He smiled.

"Are you high? It's late and I'm in bed." He rested his chin on the window sill.

"...actually yeah, I am. And too bad. Get up. I need someone to talk to, people are starting to wonder why I'm talking to myself." He said, before taking another drag on his _'cigarette'_

"Nah, I gotta sleep. Sorry man." Leo smirked. "Maybe if you showed up a little earlier."

"Sure, sure, not a problem. Talk to you tomorrow." Russ waved and walked off the lawn and back onto the sidewalk. Leo's house was a block away from the hospital park, where Fletcher usually went to sit and stare.

His younger borther had a condition, a learning disability, the inability to comprehend concequence. It became most noticible when the neighbour's dog got hold of a popsicle one year, when he was six, and in response, stomped the dog to death. He then wondered why everyone was mad at him. It was a rare condition to say the least, and even harder to cope with. There was no amount of medication to put him on to curbe the behavior, just dicipline and a strict lifestyle, one of which no one in that house was getting.

Russell's mother, Judith, was rarely ever home. She had taken any opprtunity to go and have herself a good time, leaving the rest of her family to fend for themselves. She was a gold digger, a leach as his father refered to her as, and she abandoned the people that needed her the most for a few quick flings and some easy money. Needless to say, Richard, his father, didn't have a whole lot of respect for her.

Finally making his way the park, surprisingly quickly in his 'elevated' state, he found his younger brother Fletcher. "Yo." Russell squatted next to him. The younger of the two was sitting in the grass next to the pond in the park where he usually took off to. "Why do you always come here? I drag you home all the time, but I never think to ask."

Fletcher looked at his older sibling. "...are you high?"

"Yes...now why are you here?" He sat down and placed his fists on the ground in front of himself.

"Mom took us here. For that concert...you remember, right?" He glanced off over the small pond, he could see the shiny outline of bats flying around over the surface of the water. "The only real memories I have of her, are when she took us here. Well...maybe except for a couple." Fletcher wasn't too distraught over not having his mom around, he just didn't understand.

"...she really isn't around all that often, is she? Dad's always there, you got to go easier on him." Russell fixed his faded green bangs behind one of his ears. "You gotta stop doing this."

"Why? I'm just sitting here." He reasoned with him while running his fingers through his short, spiky blond hair.

"Because you worry dad. If you're out late at night, he may think that you're hurt, or worse." Russell didn't know why he was bothering to explain anything like this to him. It wasn't that he was frustrated with doing so, he knew his brother just didn't comprehend it.

"Why?" Still, he didn't budge.

That was the response he always received. "Because your family loves you."

"...you mean...you love me." Fletcher wanted clairfication.

"Of course I do." Russ was sincear.

"...Ha! Fag." He joked with his sibling.

"Cute. Let's go." He stood up and teetered next to Fletcher. "I'll lead the way!" He said with a finger pointing straight up in the air.

"Sure you will." He followed close behind.

Making it safely home, he decided to find his father and inform him that he had returned safely. "Oh dad...where are you...come out, come out." He muttered as he wandered around the house.

"I'm in the kitchen." Richard said from the other room.

Russ flowed into the kitchen and faced his father. "Was he at the park?"

"Yup. Did you know there's a lot of bats out there? Looks really nice under the stree lights. All shiney and such." Russ nodded as he enlightened his father with his 'doubious' information.

"..." He stared blankly at his oldest. "Are you high?"

Russ flopped his hands at his sides. "Is it really that obvious? Yes." People kept pointing it out, so he was beginning to think that he wasn't so secretive about it.

Richard shook his head. "You know I don't like you doing that." He rolled his wheelchair out from around the lowered island in the middle of the kitchen.

"I know, that's why I do it outside...and only on Tuesday's, Thursday's and Saturday's..." He could still sence his father's diapproval. "Don't worry, if it becomes a problem, I'll stop."

Richard watched Fletcher go down into the bacement where his room was. "You're not being a good influence on your brother."

Russ folded his arms. "Honestly...I don't think he understands the effects of smoking pot...so I think we're good."

Once again, he shook his head. "Just try not to end up like your mother. Alright?"

He nodded. "Sure...I'm gonna head off to bed." He pointed both his thumbs in the direction of his room.

"...goodnight." Richard went to wheel away into the adjacent room when he got caught on an old floor board. "Damn..."

Hearing his distress, Russell quickly approached the chair and dislodged him from the crack. "Maybe we should take some of mom's money and replace the floor. You know I know how, and I don't mind doing it, it's fun." Aside from being a wiz with electronics, he was great at carpentry. His mother, even though she was never around, she always dropped off money to Russell.

Judith liked her freedom, but she still loved her family. Though money was never enough to fill the gap, it sure took the sting out of being abandoned. But that's what the weed was for. Russ knew it wasn't the best way to deal with stress, but one form of escapisim was as good as the next, so he just did what he did. "Come on, we've been talking about re-doing the floor for a while now."

"No!" He snapped. "I'm not accepting money from her. Dirty money is all she has."

"_Yeah._" Agreeing with his father, he followed up. "But it's valuable money."

"Not to me." He quickly jerked his wheels away. "I've almost got enough on my own, we don't need her." That being said, he exited the kitchen.

"...ah, dad." Russell flung his hands behind his head and walked off to his room, whisteling all the way. They weren't short on money, his father ran a sucessful internet business, designing web pages and hosting servers, so they weren't in the red. For all the pride Richard had left, taking money form the woman who constantly broke his heart would more than likely end him.

Russell laid back on his bed and shut his eyes, allowing himself to just exist for a few moments. It was nearly eleven, so he was going to have to get some sleep soon. Only a few seconds passed when his phone began to ring. Grabbing it off the desk, he flipped it open. "Sup'?"

'_Hey._' It was Aria. "Are you getting aride from Ed tomorrow?" She questioned.

"Yea." He said, half paying attention.

'_That's cool...Did I wake you up- No, it's Tuesday, isn't it?_' She snickered.

"Yup." He said again with a smile. "Tis' Tuesday."

* * *

There you have it. I really enjoyed writing this one, it actually took me a few days to do it. Normally it take me half a day to write a full chapter, but this one, I had keep going back, double checking, making sure the transitions were smooth enough. Really, this was a challenge.

Seriously, tell me what you guys think. I really do want to know. This was growth for me...yeah...freaky.

Anyway, thanks for reading. :)


	18. Episode 18 Feeling

Once again, here I am, providing you with yet another chapter.

I need to so this quick, so stick with me and we'll make it through!

* * *

**Chapter 18 - Feeling**

* * *

Knowing full well it was a terrible habit of getting into, Ed couldn't resist getting a coffee from Tim's every morning he had the van. _'But it's just so good_.' was his excuse. After getting his caffine fix, Edward picked up his group of friends and they were heading off to school.

"So..." Aria began from the very back of the van. "Do you think that Clause'll still be upset?"

Leo shrugged. "Maybe...if she's there. She might be too embarassed to even show up." He pointed out. "Clause really did make a fool of herself, it wouldn't surprised anyone if she decided to lay low for a little while. Honestly, she's spitful, whe'll probably bring some of her grudges to the grave, so she might be plotting agian."

"Best to stay on our toes then." Aria warned.

"I don't really care either way, just so long as she keeps her distance." Ed wasn't one to hold a grudge, but he was still a little sore after the whole incident. It had only been a day, so wounds were still fresh. Reaching their normal turning point, Ed was faced with a road block, the straight forward path was blocked by road construction. "Son of a-" Ed muttered. "Now we have to take the long way." He eyed the direction of '_left_' in distain.

"We could always take the tunnel." Russell pointed off to their right, out the side door window. "It takes us right to the back of the school." There was a barricade in front of it that had been knocked over. "It's only closed because the security camera's were broken."

"And seeing as how we're so '_gettho_' we didn't replace them yet." Paninya piped up from the middle seat. "It's been nearly two months."

Leo laughed. "Just like one of the traffic lights on George Street, it's held on with duct tape."

Ed looked at Leo sitting next to him. "You serious?"

He nodded. "We'll head downtown sometime, you'll see them."

"Tunnel now?" Russ said. "We have someone behind us."

Ed looked in the rearview mirror. "Damn...oh well, we'll just get a slap on the hand if we get caught." Ed turned his wheel off to the right and entered the tunnel. "At least it's still well lit...what the?" He looked in the rearview mirror once again to see that the van, behind them at the crossroads, was now following them. "Uh...what if they're undercover cops? Damn, long way it is I guess."

With a quick jerk, the vehical behind them pulled up along side and there was a sign, crudly written, saying '_**race?**_'

"You're kidding, we're in vans, that's like racing turtles. Sure they can move, but who gives a shit." Bunny complained.

"Oh, it'll be fun, remember, no cameras." Ed put his foot down on the gas pedal a bit and laid on the horn for a few seconds. Quickly he began to pick up speed. The other vhecial kept up, not wasting any time cashing in on the race scenario.

The lights illuminating the sidewalks in the tunned flew right by, looking almost like a solid line of light. Ed managed to get the van up to 120 KMPH, but sadly, was no match for the superior speed of the other van. It zipped right on by and broke the yellow tap blocking off the opposite end of the tunnel. Speed rapidly reducing as it exited the tunnel.

"Damn, we lost...we even had a head start." Ed slowed down and parked behind where the other vhecial stopped on the side of the road. Ed's phone began to buzz. Taking it out of his pocket, he flipped it up to see the text that he just received. '_We won._' Is what it said. "We? Right, there was someone holding the sign."

Ed saw the other vhecial's door open and none other than Clause step out. Ed quickly saved her number to his address book, for future reference, and then he too stepped out of the vhecial.

"Ed. Come on, don't start anything." Leo warned.

Edward looked at Clause who didn't seem to repremanding. "No worries." He closed the door behind him and began to approach Clause. "So...what's the deal with the race? Thought you'd be mad at us." He held his arms out at his sides in question.

Clause walked right up to Ed and gave him a firm poke in the chest. "You beat me in court, so I beat you behind the wheel. Now...we're even." She smiled and walked off.

Ed was stunned for a moment, but nodded. "That works...who's in there with you?"

Clause looked over her shoulder. "Winry is, it was actually her idea." She waved and hopped back into the van and steadily pulled away.

He smiled. Winry was a good girl, to this day, he still didn't undrstand why she stuck with the plastics. It just didn't make sense. Ed hopped back into the van and buckled himslef in. "Interesting." He said.

"Interesting? What did she say?" Aria questioned; she had scooted her way up to the front of the van so she could ready her phone just incase Clause tried to pull the same stunt again.

"She said that since she beat me on the road, that we were even." Ed nodded again. "Very interesting."

Leo sat back in the driver's side seat and sighed. "...I wonder what goes on in her head sometimes." He scoffed. "If anything at all."

* * *

"Ed." A small voice spoke to him.

Turining around, only briefly, to see who was talking to him but was quickly tugged off into a nearby classroom. "AH!" He let out a startled cry.

"Shh." Winry's voice sounded in his ear.

He managed to stand up and make eye contact with Winry. "What the heck was that for?" He held his hand over his chest, trying to quell his beating heart. He couldn't tell if it was beating so fast because he was startled or if it was because of Winry. She looked amazing today form some odd reason, not that she ever looked bad, but today she seemed to be glowing.

"So! What did you think?" She asked abruptly.

"I thought I was being sucked into a void." Ed promptly answered, not being too sure what she was inquireing about, so he refrenced the pulling of himself into the room instead.

"I meant about the race. Clause is really simple, you just gotta' know what makes her tick. She just wanted to know that she won against you." She clutched her hands around the opposite arm on either side of her body, essentially hugging herself. "Besides, the hum of the engine, the smell of oil burning, the wind in your hair! AHH! Makes me feel alive." Winry threw her arms up in the air in a fit of joy.

Edward then became quite scared, he backed off a step. "Glad you enjoyed yourself. So...are we at peace with Clause, or is there more?" He asked in an unsure tone.

Coming down off her cloud, Winry then became slightly serious. "Hard to say really. I mean, for now, I know she'll be fine, but I can gaurentee that she's going to slip back into old habits. Humans are creatures of habit." Winry paused for a moment. "Oh, by the way, I got my mark for that bio project." She approached Ed and gave him a tight hug and a brief kiss on the cheek. "I got perfect marks, 100 precent, you're a lifesaver Ed."

Trying his best to hide the blush on his face, he smiled warmly. "I'm glad I could help." He rubbed the corners of his eyes with his right hand.

"Alright. Be careful, just because she was friendly with you, doesn't change what she is and what you are to her." Winry warned.

Not being able to contain himself anymore, Ed finally asked her the burning question that had been on his mind since day one. "Ok, I need to know. You seem to act like you care for where you're at. Why don't you-"

Winry cut him off. "Go over to the dark side?" She was quite quick to catch on to what Ed was trying to convay. "We all have our reasons for doing what we do. Being where I'm at right now, surprisingly enough, makes my life a lot easier. At school and at home. _Espically_ at home." Winry turned her head at the sound of the 'end of mid morning break' bell. "But that will have to wait for another day. We just met a little under a month ago. Everything will become clear to you some day." She waved. "See you later."

Ed nodded, taking in all the Winry had said. "...alright...later." With that said, Winry left him there in the empty classroom to ponder. "At home, huh?" That being said, Ed ventured off to his next class.

* * *

"Hey Al." Clause's voice came from behind the locker door.

"Geez." Al took a step back, slightly startled. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry." Clause lowered her line of vision. "Listen, Al, I'm really sorry for what I did, I just...I really like you, I wanted people to think that we were more than just friends. I handled it badly, and I almost seriously hurt you because of it. I need to get my temper in check, you're never suppose to hurt the ones you care about. Even if there's never going to be anything between us, do you think we could at least still be friends?" As she spoke, tears began to form in her eyes.

Al panicked. "Don't cry." He huffed. "Clause, you really tore into me. I'll say that we can be friends still, but it's going to take a lot fer me to be able to trust you again. Alright?" Al was stern with his words.

The tears that were in Clauses's eyes glided over her cheeks and hit her shirt. She slid her arm across her eyes, making them mostly dry. "Thanks Al. That really means a lot. And, just so you know, I'm going to try and make it up to you. I won't do anything to hurt you ever again. I promise." She clasped her hands together, as if to pray.

He remembered that he tried doing that exact same thing in hopes that something good would happen. Al hesitated as he looked for any amount of insincerity. Seeing none, he nodded. "Ok. I'll see you at lunch." With that said, he shut his locker, locked it and walked off.

Clause smiled. 'I'll win you back Al, whatever it takes.'

* * *

Though there was still a little bit of distance between them, Al managed to treat Clause as he normally did, just with a little less feeling behind it. Not that he ever had anything deep for her, he still did consider her a friend before hand, so this was the best way to go about the healing process.

As it normally did, lunch came and went, leaving the students with only two more hours till the end of the day. Al sat at the back of his class, staring off out the window. He was quick with writing, so when the teacher was marking things down on the board, he was always the first to finish, leaving him with some time to himself to think. As if from nowhere, Al's head began to ache. Disregarding it, he continued to stare.

His second last class passed and he became more and more ill feeling. "Uh." Al rubbed his eyes on the way to his next class.

"You doin' alright?" Kain looked over to Al who was also on the way to gym class.

"I feel like shit...maybe I should go home." Al looked out over the field, the sun beating down on the crisping grass.

"You know the teacher's going to think your faking it so you don't have to run track." Kain tossed his bookbag down next to the outside bleachers.

Al scoffed. "Let her think what she wants, I like track...I just feel gross." He rubbed his head again. "This headache is killing me."

"...Maybe you _should_ sit this one out." Kain tried his best to offer a little guidance.

Alphonse shook his head, stubborn as ever. "...Never mind, I can do it, it's nearly the end of the day."

The way that gym class usually went, when there was no actual game going on, like in this case, it consisted of two laps that needed to be run and then walk till the end of class around the track.

Al managed to make one run around the track before the nausea started to get to him. "Hey...Miss...mind...if I sit...in the shade." He said through his vicious panting.

Mrs. Curtis, who also functioned as a gym teacher, approached Al. She took his face in her hand and examined the color of Al's skin. "You're flushed. Yes, you go and sit in the shade till the end bell. I'll notify your brother that he has to make sure you get home."

Al was shocked. "...really?" He nodded. "Thanks miss."

"Here." She walked him over to the to school's outdoor cooler and pullled out a cool bottle of water. "You look like you have heat exaustion, and we don't need our newest team member being hospitalized."

Taking the water from the teacher, he agreed. "True enough. Thanks again." He twisted the top of the bottle off, with more effort that he thought he needed, and took a swig from the clear container. He felt really weak, and struggeling with a plastic bottle was proof enough that he wasn't feeling well.

"If you need anything, just ask." She gave him a pat on the shoulder and went back to her students.

Looking around for a suitable spot to lay in the shade, he spotted the bleachers, and the cool shade they exibited right beneath them. Slinking his way through the rungs of the arranged seating, he laid out on the soft grass underneath. It was sparse because it normally didn't get a lot of sun, so it also wasn't as sharp as the plant life in the middle of the field. Feeling too warm, he poured some of the water out in his hand and splashed it on his face and ran his fingers through his hair to dry. With a sigh of relief, he closed his eyes and drifted off.

* * *

"Hell_oooo_." The sound of Ed's voice finally managed to wake him up.

Al opened his eyes to see none other than Ed hovering over him, his hands resting on his knees. "Hey."

"Hey...ready to go home? Mrs. Curtis said you looked like crap, so she sent for me."

Thinking about it for a second, Al inquired. "She said that?"

Laughing a little, Ed shook his head. "Maybe not word for word, but she did say that you weren't feeling well. And now that I'm here...you do look like crap." He watched Al sit up. "Do you _feel_ bad?"

Al rubbed his dry face. "Yes...I actually feel really weak."

"D'Awww. Want me to carry you." Ed joked in a sooky tone.

"...actually, yeah, I do." Al shakily got to his feet.

"Dude, I was kidding." He defended his freedom.

"Tough, turn around." Al spun his finger in a clockwise circle.

"Ugh, son of a--" Ed turned around and knelt down, allowing Al to piggy back on him. "You're lucky I'm nice." That being said, he stood up and began menuvering his way through the support beams of the bleachers.

* * *

"I have to ask, are you really sick, or is this just some ploy to get out of doing yard work?" Ed glanced at his brother in the passenger seat.

"Yard work? Ah, fuck...I forgot...seriously though, I really don't feel good. It hit me second last class and it just keeps getting worse." He leaned against the door.

Frantically looking out the front window and then back to his brother, not wanting to take his eyes off the road but he also needed to see if Al was fibbing. "You'd better not be liying." He glued his eyes back on the road.

"...do you want proof?" Al suggested.

Ed was confused. "That would be good...why, do you have a fever or something."

"Probably, but that's not what I meant. Pull over." Al said.

"Pull over?" Ed glanced over to Al. "Why?" He could see his hand over his mouth. "Oh, lovely. Don't get it on the seat." Ed quickly pulled over to the shoulder of the road.

* * *

"You are going to owe me big time after this. And you better not be contagious. I hate being sick." Ed pushed the front door open, Al held on steadily to his shoulders as he once again hitched a ride.

"Sure, heat exaustion is really contagious there Ed...uh, bathroom...then you can go." Al pointed to the stairs.

"Hey...don't get lippy." Ed headed up the sairs and let Al off at the top of the steps. "I'll go tell mom that I'll be doing the work alone...hurry up and stop being sick...makes my life easier."

"I'll get right on that." He said, disappearing into the facilities.

* * *

Heat exaustion? Food poisoning? Stress? You never know with me. I like to go for something more unessary an elaborate. ;P

Anywho, tell me what you think.


	19. Episode 19 Dark Horse

**_Ok, you may have noticed that I changed it from 'Chapters' to 'Episode' Because really, it feels like a series rather than a book. There's no definite plot, so...I don't know, it just feels right this way. :P_**

Now, edxwin cannon had a good point. I keep torturing poor Al and Ed gets off scott free...really, I must hate Al deep down. Oh well.

Ed needs a little conflict...let's hook him up, shall we.

Enjoy. ;P

* * *

**Episode 19 - Dark Horse

* * *

**

Ed sat at his kitchen table, picking splinters from the old shovel, which he protested against using until his father bought a new one, out of his hand. One had become infected so he was doing his best to get it cleared up before it got worse.

"Edward." His father spoke from the doorway. "Did you remember to put the garbage on the curbe?"

Sighing, he responded with displeasure. "It's Al's job to take out the garbage this week."

"He's sick." Von defended Al's position.

"Yeah, and that's not my fault." He argued.

"Take it out." He demanded.

Rolling his eyes, he went right back to getting yet another splinter out of his hand. "I'll do it in a minute. If I take it out now, it'll just dig these splinters in farther."

"Now Ed." Another demand.

"Hey, if you'd have replaced the shovel like I request before we moved, I wouldn't have a million splinters in my hand." Ed did his best to reason.

"Hurry it up then, get it out before it gets dark." With that being said, Von left the doorway.

Ed groaned in frustration and pain. He didn't understand why he had to double his work load just because Al was sick. He had also managed to get the big splinter out. Playing surgeon with a sewing needle was the easiest way to dislodge splinters.

Had his father just asked him to do these things, rather than just demanding them, he would have been more than happy to oblige without argunment. It was one thing to be diciplined, but it was another to just be used. He severly dislined it. So he argued his point.

Whenever a situation like this happened, Ed seemed to get dumped on a lot by his fahter. He knew he played favorites, and babying Al when he was sick was something he ended up doing. Of course, his mom was like that when he, himself, was sick, so as much as he hated it, he knew he shouldn't complain.

Managing to dislodge the final splinter, sun still sitting on the horizon, he headed for the garbage bin to pick up the trash bags. Upon reaching the curbe, something caught his eye, a car. It was sleek looking, nice hubcaps and beautiful sleek black in color. He managed to tell the type of the car, only by the insignia on the back. He wasn't really into cars, so telling them apart just by how they looked wasn't something he could do, unlike his brother.

It was a black mustang.

Ed didn't stare at it, just admired it outside of his prerefrial vision. It drove on by, not stopping, just slowing down momentairly and then it kept going. Paying it no mind, he went back up to the rear of the house to grab the last two garbage bags. He shut the lid to avoid the cats from getting in there, and once more, headed to the curbe to drop the refuse. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the same black mustang rounding the corner yet again.

'_Why is he looping the block?_' Ed thought for a moment. He then came to the conclusion that the driver might be looking for someone's house and may be lost. Not being that outgoing, he opted for not helping the confused driver and went back into his house.

* * *

Ed laid down in his bed, covers pulled up tightly, ready to drift off to sleep at any moment. Al still was bed ridden and hadn't left his room except to use the washroom or to get a drink of water. Sitting up once again, he got off of his bed and headed towards Al's room, purely out of concern, he wasn't trying to see if he was up on the computer, laughing that he faked sick with an online buddy. He peeked in to see Al setting up Winamp on the compter to play a little music. "You're still up?" Edward questioned. It was only shortly after ten, but he wasn't feeling good, so this was late for him.

"Yeah, my headache is keeping me up. I figured a little music would help keep my mind off of it." Al turned off the monitor and allowed the speaker to stay on, the first song it randomed to was Crawling, by Likin Park.

Seeing that his brother wasn't faking anything, he continued on with casual conersation. "I was thinking." He began. "Maybe you have food poisoning. I mean, you only started to feel sick after lunch, right?"

Al sat at the edge of his bed and thought for a moment. "Maybe...but I didn't really eat anything out of the ordinary. Just the same sandwidge mom made for me. You ate one too."

"Huh...odd. I mean, heat exaustion clears up when you get hydrated and cool down...are you still fevreish?"

Al nodded. "I feel cold and it's 22 in here. So I must." His brother approached him and placed a hand on his forehead. "Warm?"

"A little. Do you feel any better?" Ed took a step back, he really didn't want to chance catching anything.

"Not really...but I don't feel any worse...maybe it's the flu? The season's changin soon right?" Al looked out his window, the sky was a deep navy blue, stars speckeled the sky in various locations. "Hmm? What's that?" Al leaned to the head of his bed and peeked out the window. "Ah! It's a mustang. Nice."

"Well, you don't seem too distressed...wait...what? Is it black?" Ed peeked out the window from behind him.

"Looks it...why? You know em'?" Al questioned, he could see his brother's face grow concerned.

"Nothing...I'll let you get some sleep. G'night." Edward said as he vacated the room.

"Alright then. Night." Al said as he closed the door.

Ed stood there for a second. Normally he didn't think about things like this. But with Clause's new attitude toward him this morning, and the whole incident with Al just 'blowing over' in a day, made him think, conspiracy.

Retreating to his bed once again, he looked out his window once more, the same car was circleing the block again. Ed quickly shut off his light and peered out through the curtain, just to see if he could get a glimpse of who was in the car.

Carefully, he stared, patiently. Before he could see much of anything, nothing more than an outline, the car took off down the street, squeeling it's tires as it did so.

Ed was disgusted with the irritating, and utterly useless, display of testosterone. "Asshole." He muttered as he laid back down.

* * *

Alphonse requested he stay home for at least one day, just so he could recuperate properly. With ease, the folks let him stay and accosted Ed to pick up any work he might have missed.

Of course, Ed didn't mind doing so, in his opinion, Al needed all the knowledge he could get. Though he would never say that. He loved his brother, he didn't want to go out of his way to belittle him. Though if he did so, it would end a lot of arugnments a lot quicker if he did. Though Ed digressed, he was bigger than that kind of person. Al put way too much emphasis on sports and not enough on actual school work.

The day passed and he managed to talk to both Kain and Breda, gathering up the homework from them. Al had a gym class, so the teacher just ended up making a lame joke that his homework was to get better. She even wrote him a sticky note and glued it to a piece of paper. She was a good teacher and held no quam with him, even after what happened between him and her daughter. Ed really admired that, and was thankful at the same time.

If she disliked him, it would mean that the basketball team wasn't going to be an option. Staying on her good side was the best way to go. And it wasn't difficult either, she was a 'just do you work and don't misbehave' kind of teacher. She didn't want you to stretch above and beyond what you were capable of, she just wanted you to do your best. She was strict, but fair. A great teacher to say the very least.

Ed walked down the stairs at the back of the school with his group of friends. They chatted quietly amongst themselves. Just then, something caught Ed's eye that made his blood run cold.

"What's wrong?" Aria looked in the same direction as Ed. Just like Ed, her blood also chilled and her heart even felt like it stopped.

"That guy was driving around my block last night and parked outside my house...who is he? Maybe I know him." Ed was confused and slightly unerved.

"H-he's..." Aria stammered.

"It's that bastard." Leo snapped as he watched the car carefully. "It's Roy."

"Roy?" Ed questioned and recalled that name from Winry as well.

"My ex'." Aria said, taking a few steps back.

The car suddenly came to life and pulled into the parking lot, gunning it's tires on the pavement as it did so. The youth behind the wheel, and the only person in the car at the time, got out of the car. He looked to be a bit older than they were. He was definitly a college student, his blazer was a dead give away. "Good afternoon folks...Aria." He greeted the group in a saucy manner.

"Fuck off dude, don't start anything." Leo stood fast in front of Aria.

Roy waved a hand at him. "I'm not here to see her. I'm here to see my man, Edward."

"Who are you again?" Ed was confused.

"I'll explain. Come with me." In a strangely friendly manner, he wrapped his arm around Edward's shoulder and walked away from the group. "Edward. Buddy, pal, friend."

"I reiterate, who are you?" Ed didn't show any sign of weakness; he was use to dealing with bullies, and showing you're intimidated was a sure fire way to get yourself jammed into a locker.

"How rude of me. I'm Roy, I'm your firend...and I'm also Winry's friend." He stated bluntly. "And from what I'm told, and what I've seen, you're a friend of her's too. Am I right in saying this?"

Ed nodded. "That's right. I help her out with Bio. She's a nice girl." Honesty was also another good hand to play.

"That's really nice of you, and yes, she is nice...you know what would be great. If I could date Winry. Don't you think that'd be great Ed?" He was a very strang youth, talking as if he had known Ed for years.

"Actually no." There was that honesty again. "It's actually kind of sleezy, how old are you? Ninteen, twenty?"

"Twenty." He answered.

"Well, I think it would probably be best if you dated someone your own age, maybe in your own school. Makes life easier to get by. I mean, you do seem like a jerk." Honesty wasn't always the best answer though. But showing a little backbone really went a long way at times.

Roy snickered to himself. "That hurts. Alright, change of plans." He glared down at Edward. "We are no longer friends. If I catch you around her, I'm going to flatten you, got that short stuff." He poked Ed really hard in the shoulder as he spoke.

"We have some classes together and really, I think she's allowed to see whoever she wants there, Roy." Ed smiled at him.

"You want to play that way? Fine!" Roy quickly lined up and landed a fist right in the middle of Ed's stomach. "Winry's mine! Got that!?"

Ed, without flinching, nodded in disbelief. "Sure she is Roy. Anything else?"

Roy was stunned at Ed's lack of response, he hit him pretty hard and not so much as a batted eyelash. "No...I think I got my point across." He took a step back.

"As pointless as it was." Ed scoffed.

Roy tapped him in the face once and then headed off to his vheical and sped off out of the parking lot.

"Ed...you alright?" Aria approached him from behind and gave him a tap on the shoulder.

Finally not being able to hold it any longer, Ed doubled over in a coughing fit on the ground, clutching his stomach in pain.

* * *

Take that Ed! ...I'M SORRY! (Hugs little Ed plushie)

I don't think I hate Al, I just love Ed that much more. Sorry Al.

Anyway, we'll just put Al's little issues on hold, they'll hold for a little longer. And this is a nice segway. :P

Tell me what you think.


	20. Episode 20 Plot

Isn't it amazing? I'm not dead! I was off work for a month, I had a major depression break down. But luckily, I'm back and ready to start updating again. They put me on anti-depresants and everything. :P But seriously, sorry for the lack of communication. I have such an awesome idea for the rest of this story, and I totally just abandoned it.

You have my word so that as long as I am breathing, I wil be updating.

Here's the next chapitria! Enjoy!

* * *

**Episode 20 - Plot**

* * *

Ed managed to compose himself and get back to his feet. "That bastard." He brushed himself off.

"Now you see what I mean." Leo folded his arms as he looked at the section of the parking lot that Roy pulled out of.

"He's aweful. We only dated for a little while, but he got really pushy and tried to make me do things I didn't want to do." Aria stared off in the same direction as Leo. "Drugs, heavy drugs."

"That's some scary shit. Yeah, we never did get around talking about what happened between you and Roy." Russell put a hand on Aria's shoulder. "Park?"

Aria nodded.

* * *

"He's a sweet talker, you saw him." Aria pulled her knees in close and rested her chin on them. "I'm so cute and I'm so sweet, there's no one else like me. He was a dumb decision and I nearly got in a lot of trouble because of him." She spoke to the rest of the group.

The normal spot to talk was at the local park, was a clearing amidst some trees where they set up some logs and a little fire pit, about a foot and a half around. It had to be big enough to heat them up, but not big enough so that anyone outside the trees cold see it. The tree tops were high, so it dispersed the smoke nicely. Though there was no fire tonight, it was the perfect temperature.

"I met him in a chat room. We started hanging around and eventually started dating. It only lasted three months and then he started taking me to all these house parties, frat parties and even a rave. Everytime we went, he always got me drinks, which I never drank, and throwing pills around like they were candy. Weed's one thing, but acid, meth, cocaine? Nah, no way."

"Speaking of which." Russell stood up and walked a few feet away from the group. They looked at him. "Continue." He flagged them on.

"...Thursday, right. But yeah, the last time we went out, we were in a bar in town. He got the bouncer to let me in. We stayed there for a while until he got fed up at the fact that I wouldn't drink, then he tried to take me to one of his buddies places in the inner city, a big apartment building. I got to the front door and that was it, I saw Leo up the street. I sent him a text while we were in the cab to where we were going and to come and save me. Leo got there in enough time to watch him throw me down the stairs. Then, he grabbed a tin trash can from the top step and smashed me in the head with it." She played with the bangs hangnig over the right side of her face. "That's actually the reason I started wearing my hair like this, to cover the bruise. Also, the reason why I wasn't in school the first day you were there."

Ed nodded. "Leo said you were sick...I understand why he didn't disclose any more information. So we get to deal with him again. Well, I do."

"Nah, we'll help out, I will at least. He's a big guy, and I think you'll need the back up." Aria supported him.

"Thanks." Ed seemed a little helpless.

"We should totally take a sledge hammer and beat the fuck out of his car." Russell said from behind the group.

"A little violent, don't you think?" Ed smirked.

"Eh, high hopes." Leo shook his head.

"Right." Ed setteled back down and then it hit him. He examined his stomach for a bruise, ultimatly coming up with nothing. "It just occured to me. He's twenty."

"And?" Paninya inquired. "That just means he's older, not a big deal."

"Sure it is." Ed smirked. "It's a shame no bruise showed up. I'm still a minor, if he hits me, he could go to jail."

"That's right." Leo snapped his fingers. "So we just have to find some way to get him caught in the act."

Russ shook his head. "He won't do it again. He did it descreatly before because he knew he could get away with it. He won't make the same mistake twice. He knows you have the upper hand, I mean, you were pretty saucy with him despite the strength difference. He knows you know...ya' know."

"Thank you Rajin." Ed joked. "But seriously...how can we end this? He's going to keep harassing Winry if something isn't done."

Aria raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so concerned about Winry?" She spoke in an inquisitive manner.

Ed became sheepish. "Well, I just...she's nice and all...and...yeah. She's a good person."

"You are **so** full of shit." Paninya blurted out. "You have a crush on her!"

"You're from two different worlds Ed, there's no point." Russell said as he exhaled smoke. "Pointless."

"Regardless if I have chance with her or not, that still doesn't make me not want to help her." Ed defended his reasoning.

"Ah, chivalry isn't dead. How poetic." Russ comented.

"Would you cut that out." Leo snipped at him. "Sit down before you fall down."

"Fine, fine." He sat down next to Aria and Paninya, holding the embers away from them. "Maybe a challenge."

"What?" Ed questioned.

"You ever seen Grease? I think it was the second one, that whole '_car race to win the girl over_' routine." Russ nodded. "I think he might go for it."

"Yeah." Leo began. "But I don't think Winry's the type of person to be 'won as a prize'. Damsel in distress doesn't seem to be her strong suit."

"And he's got a mustang, good luck beating that in the van." Aria elaborated. "Racing turtles, remember?"

"No, I mean, take him to the tunnel, race him and then get the footage on camera. We could blackmail him to leave us alone." Russ seemed to start to make sence. "We don't need to win the race at all. We just have to pretend to for a little while, then BAM! Hit the breaks. He rides out the end of the tunnel, we get it on tape and he's left holding the bag."

"...that's not bad." Ed made eye contact with the rest of the group. "Yes?" The group nodded. "You know what? I think Winry might actually enjoy this one too. I'll call her tonight."

Ed then had a bunch of wide eyes locked on him. "You have her number?" Aria said in disbelief.

He couldn't help but turn at least a little red. "Well, yeah. She gave it to me and I gave her mine, just in case she needed help with Bio...or soemthing."

"Maybe you've got better luck than expected. Strong with the plastics, young Edward is." Russell stood up flicking the butt part of the roach away in a puddle. "No point in sitting here, let's hunt down a camera."

* * *

Winry stood at the smoothie shop in disbelief. "And you think this'll work?"

Ed nodded. "Yeah. We talked it over a little more on the way here and it would look better on us if it looks like we were trying to do a project for school, we were recording it and Roy just happens to zoom by in the middle of the whole thing."

Clause, who was standing next to Winry waiting for their order, turned around and smiled. "Well, he does do drag racing out the country side, so I don't see it as impossible to try and convince him. It's really only getting him into the city that you need to figure out."

Winry looked a little surprised. "Really? Seems luck's on your side. All you need is a camera after all that."

Turning around with her and Winry's drinks, Clause smiled again. "I could help out. My folks just bought a new digital camcorder. I could lend you that."

Ed nodded in suspission. "Forgive me, I appreciate this and all...but I thought you didn't like us." He brought up a very good point.

She shrugged. "I promised I'd make up for what I did to Al, I want to prove to him that I'm better now. You'll have my full support for this mission."

He smiled. "...Thanks Clause." Wowed at the whole thing, he bid his goodbyes and headed back to the group.

The taller blond girl eyed her friend suspiciously. "You better have meant that."

Clause nodded. "You'd better believe it." She said, handing Winry her tropical smoothie, keeping the orange one for herself. "I really mean it."

* * *

Clause was really anxious to get this whole thing up and running that she dropped the camera off at Aria's house after coming back from the mall. She did only live a little up the street from her, so it was no long walk.

Out in Aria's back porch, the group stood in awe over the expensive looking piece of equipment. "This things got more bells and whistles than a swiss army knife." Russell said as he went over the user manual for Clause's camera. He had the camera in one hand and a 'special' cigarette in the other hand; fortunatly for everyone else, they had migrated out to the back step so Russell could have another and not choke out everyone else in the bacement. The night was upon them now so there wal less chance of someone noticing Russell and his habit.

"A wet burning pine tree..." Aria said, her nose slightly in the air.

"What?" Russ said, exhaling in the other direction.

"That's what it smells like...kinda. There's really no other sent like it. Why do you do something that smells so '_blech_'." Aria did her best to describe the smell.

"It's for the effect." He turned the page. "Oh...that's what that's for." He was off in his own little world. If there was one thing Russell was good at, it was electronics.

"Well, at least your habit hasn't dulled you any." Leo hopped up on the railing of Aria's back step and looked at the book over Russell's shoulder; briefly catching a little second hand, he coughed. "How does this thing work?"

Russ held the camera up and pushed a couple buttons. The little machine whirred to life; a few lights came on and then the lense focused out. "Like that. Dulled by my habit, as if. Hold this." He handed the rest of his joint to Leo.

"..." He held it gingerly in his left hand.

"We have slow motion, zoom, headlights." Russ said as he pointed to all the different buttons all over the video camera.

"Headlights?" Paninya questioned.

"Headlights." Russell poked a button on the top and a very bright light shot out from the front of the little machine, catching Ed in the eyes.

"Ah!" He averted his gaze. "Now I know what deer feel like."

"Sorry dude." The faux-green haired boy tilted the camera away so he was no longer blinding Edward. "We have the option over here for videotaping scenery or low motion scenes and the option for captureing high motion scenes. The example they gave in the book was a car race, so I think we may be set."

"This is awesome." Aria beamed. "Finally, I'll get him off my back, Winry's too."

"It seems now that the only thing that we're riding on is getting Roy to agree to race us."

"Might have a little difficulty with that. I'm sure you can do it though Ed." Paninya pat him firmly on the back.

Ed became startled. "What? Why do I have to ask him? Who's idea was this in the first place?"

"T'was mine, but you backed me up." Russell pointed out, still while he messed with the functions on the camera. "Besides, you're the one raching him dude, I'm ganna' be doing the camera work."

He sat there in disbelief, he shut both his eyes. "...I guess if I'm the only one tough enough..." They fell slient as Ed peeked out his right eye ever so slightly to see if anyone was going to say anything. No one tried to defend their pride, they just looked at him and smiled. Ed then gave up. "...sonofa'...Fine." He folded his arms.

* * *

Here's hoping I haven't been dulled by my absence. ;P Tell me what you think guys, do I still have it?


	21. Episode 21 Deceipt

Now I thought I wouldn't be updating till another couple of days, but of well, here you go. I'll end this arc with the next post and then go back to picking on Al again. But I'll be involving Ed a little more.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Deep down, I must hate Al. I didn't think I hated him, but I apparently do.

Nah, not really. He's just so fun to pick on because Ed's normally the one dealing with everything, that I thought Al deserved a little attention.

Anyway, here you go.

* * *

**Episode 21 - Deceipt**_*_

* * *

"Another day off huh?" Al said as he went through the few papers that Ed had brought home for him. "Hey Mom." He spoke to her in the hallway, she was putting cloths away in the linnin closet.

"Yes?" Trisha entered Al's room and walked up behind him.

He was sitting backwards on his bed, reading all the things he was given by his brother. "Yeah, there's a meeting, so I get to rest."

"If I knew you were going to get another day off, I would have sent you today." Trisha took the letter from Al's hand and went over it. "Your studies concern me."

"Even so, I don't think that would have went over well...hey, can you turn up the heat up here, I'm freezing." Al pulled the bottom of his blankets up over his shoulders.

"Dear, it's boiling in here." She rested a hand on his forehead. "And so are you...maybe was a good thing I didn't send you after all. I'm going to get you something to bring that fever down." She handed the paper back to Al and exited the room.

"Uuh..." Al moved the papers from his bed to the floor and curled up on his side. "I hate being sick..."

* * *

Later on in the evening, they had moved back to the bacement and Russell crashed on the armchair. "Hey...Hey..." Leo proded at Russell laying sprawled out on the chair, leg hung over the edge, head back. "Are you breathing?" Leo nudged him harder. Russell graoned uncomfortable form the poke. "He's gone." The taller boy sat on the edge of the coach and rested back.

"I knew he wouldn't last till midnight." Paninya scoffed as she tossed a pillow at the unconcious mass that was her friend.

"Came pretty close though." Ed referenced the clock. "Eleven fifteen...good thing there's no school tomorrow." They had been informed on a handout at the end of the day that there was an important meeting tomorrow for the school board, so all teachers had to attend.

What the remainder of the group was doing for the evening was trying to map out a script for Ed to follow as to trick the older youth into racing them.

"So, basically, we have to make him think that we have something set aside so we can actually beat him." Aria said.

"If we make sure he thinks we have nitro, that way there's less chance of him calling you out on this. He'll think you're serious about all this." Leo pointed out.

"Now that all the cards are on the table, it just a matter of how they're played. And that's where you come in." Paninya locked eyes with Ed. "He doesn't seem that bright, so I think you'll do fine."

Aria pulled her feet beneath her on the coach and crossed her legs. "Going with the card analogy, you need to keep a poker face, maybe smirk a little. Make him think you can win this."

Ed tightened his pony tail, it tugged at his temples. "I'm good at faking it, but full out liying...that's Al's suit, not mine...maybe I'm not the best one for this."

"Come on. My car's out of comission for now, so there's no I can do it. Aria and Bunny here don't drive and even if Russell wasn't going to be behind the camera, would you really trust him behind the wheel of a car." Leo tried to reason with Ed. He knew his friendhad valid reason to worry, but he really was their only option.

"Maybe we could just tell Roy you cut your hair and use Al instead. If it's for Winry, I'm sure he'll be all over the idea." Aria tried her best to think of an alternative.

"That's no good." Edward said with a grimmace. "Al can't drive, and he's sick...so that's out."

Russell briefly came to life. "About that. Why doesn't Al have his lisence and you do?"

Aria's eyes lit up and she hand over her chest. "Geez." Russell's quick '_spurt to life_' startled her.

"Al's got a temper, that's why. When he was doing his road test, someone cut him off. Now, instead of letting it slide because he was in the middle of a test, Al decided to roll down the window and curse the guy up and down." Ed spoke as if it was nothing surprising.

"Hu-h...really now." Russell was shocked.

"Yea, apparently that makes you fail." Ed nodded. "They told him that he had to wait the full six months, even though both of us took the safety course. I got took my road test in July, he won't get to try again till October...I worry about him sometimes."

"We all do." Russ said as he rolled into another comfortable position and once again, dozed off.

* * *

Ed walked into the college garage where Roy frequented. Apparently he was a big on cars, which would explain his expensive wheels. "Roy, buddy, friend, comrad." Edward approached him in the same manner the he was approached just yesterday.

"Comrad?" Roy said in confusion as he walked out from beneath the raised up car he was working on.

"...Anyway, I have a little offer for you. A test of power if you will." Ed began in his semi-rehearsed manner. "I really like Winry, and so do you, and I figured there's something that needs to be done to settel this matter."

The older of the two turned to face him, towering nearly half a foot over Edward's head. "Maybe wresteling. I'm good at that." He flexed a bicep, blatently ignoring the car he was beneath.

Ed backed up a little. "Maybe something a little less..."

"Violent?" Roy questioned, a devious smirk on his face, tossing a wrench from one hand to another.

"Time consuming." Ed corrected him. From the looks of it, Roy was buying the whole thing. "I found out that Winry's a big fan of Nascar. So I think she might enjoy a little race. Now, I know we can't win her over, per-say, but whoever loses, has to stop making contact with her. She still gets to make her own choice and we get to settle this like men." Ed smiled, an equally as devious smirk as Roy mustered.

"What's the catch?" Roy then became skeptical.

"No catch. You beat me, I back down. I beat you, you piss off. Sound good?" Ed planted his fists on his hips, he felt he was doing a really good job of being lippy without being offensive.

Roy placed his tool down in the tool box that was on the ground at his feet. It made a loud metalic 'klunk' as it hit the other metal tools. "You're plotting something. What is it? This sounds a little too weird."

Ed shook his head. "I just know I'll come out on top. If you accept, I'll be in the lunch room of the campus till two o'clock" That being said, he turned on his heel and vacated the garage, leaving Roy dumbfounded.

"What's that shit up to...hmm?" Roy looked by his feet. There was a piece of paper that got caught in a draft coming out from beneath the door. "Who's making a mess of this place." He grabbed the slip of paper off the floor.

* * *

Leo placed the container of Nitros Oxide on the counter in front of the service rep. "I'd like to exchange this for a store credit. I found out that it won't work on my car...I did however lose the recipt."

"Not a problem." The clerk took the container from Leo and began scanning it and doing the procedure for returning an item.

Aria stood silently behind Leo as the transaction was complete. She leaned in close to Leo's ear. "Do you think Ed managed to plant the seed."

Leo nodded. "I think he's got a green thumb for it right now." They covered up their conversation with a quick analogy.

After returning the item and taking the credit in the form of a store gift card, they left for the parking lot. "He said he didn't want to lie, so a good old equivication works." The way the group managed the deal with Ed's pesky guilt was in the form of a half truth. They got him to say that he could beat him, and not say exactally how he was going to beat him.

"I just hope he falls for it." Aria checked her buzzing phone. "Looks like he might have." She held the phone out for Leo to see. The words '_Hook, line and sinker._' come into view.

* * *

"Yeah. He caught up to me in the hall and said that it was on. I guess he found the recipt and knew it was mine." Ed smiled, quite proud of himself. "You know what he's going to do? He's going to sup-up his car so it's super fast so he can be sure to beat my Nos."

Aria squeeled in delight. "This is so awesome!" She clapped her hands together really quickly. "We are going to thump him so badly."

Paninya smiled. "This'll be good payback for the 'trash can' thing too. Hell, we should just tell the cops anyway. Get him thrown in jail for a little while."

"I don't think we shoudl follow through." Russell stated calmly. "It's one thing to scare him, but it's another thing to take away something he obviously loves. He'd probably get someone on the outside to fuck with us, so let's just take this and run with it." Finally recovered from his restful sleep, he was there for the group to add in reasoning to this plot.

"It'll be tomorrow, later on in the evening. At 8 o'clock." Ed weaved his fingers together and cracked all his knuckels. "I'm nervous."

Leo pat his shoulder. "You can do it. I mean, we got up to 120 in the tunnel, so just keep a steady pace and it'll look like you're saving the Nos for the home stretch."

Ed inhaled deeply. "I hope you're right."

* * *

*Receipt+Deceit = Deceipt

Yeah, I couldn't think of a good title name so I just stuck a couple words together and came up with this title.


	22. Episode 22 I Win

The end of an arc! Always a vital point in a story. Hehe. I once again go back to hating Al...not really though.

* * *

**Episode 22 - I Win**

* * *

Ed paced back and forth in his living room as Al was sitting in the arm chair, balled up in a blanket. He was feeling better, but still rather weak. "I hope this works...what if he tries to run me off the road?"

Alphonse rolled his eyes. "Then he'll go to jail...duh."

"A lot of good that'll do me if I'm dead." He retorted.

"You're worrying too much...uh..." Al shifted uncomfortably.

"Hmm? Still not feeling well?" Ed showed his concern.

With a shake of the head, he pulled the blanket in tightly. "No, I just have to use the bathroom."

"Well go."

"It feels like I'm pissing razor blades, I'm trying to make as little trips as possible. So I wait."

"...that sounds like a bladder infection...you should probably go to the doctor."

"No...way too embarrassing to tell anyone besides you."

"Well when you start pissing blood, we'll see who you want to tell." Ed looked out the window, the sun was starting to sink on the horizon. "You should really tell mom. Get her to set an appointment."

"Forget it. I'll just ride it out."

"Whatever, I have to go now..." Ed turned and left into the hallway, briefly grabbing his coat and the van keys, he headed out the front door and into the van.

Al watched his brother leave the house. Carefully, he slid his legs over the edge of the chair and allowed them to hit the floor. No sooner had he started to get comfortable in his new position when the phone rang. Begrudgingly, Al stood up and grabbed the cordless off the book shelf. "Yo." He answered the phone in his usual way. It was Breda calling to inform him what happened a the basketball meeting after school.

"So yeah, that's about it...oh, and Carlo is out sick for the next while." Breda said with regret.

"Really? Shitty. What kind of sick? Like the Flu? Chicken pox."

"No dude. We think he has some kind of STD. He was with some girl from Clause's party, he doesn't remember who, but apparently, he started feeling really bad a day or so later. He went to get checked at the school clinic, and we haven't heard from him since. And his girlfriend's not showing up at her school either. So...yeah. Really shitty."

Al's face was a ghostly pale. "Yeah..."

* * *

Ed paced back and forth next to his vehicle. If it wasn't the impending race, it was the fact that Roy was late. It was nearly half past and Roy was nowhere in sight. "I'm so worried I could chew my own arm off."

"Both hands on the steering wheel man." Russell said. Being Saturday a J was in his mouth. Quickly looking over the camera to make sure it was in the correct mode. "Just calm down."

"Calm down? I'm about to break the law, I might get in an accident and I could also potentially get the shit kicked out of me. How am I suppose to calm down?" Ed ranted, cracking his knuckles.

Russell thought to himself for a moment. He reluctantly took the joint out of his mouth and held it out to Ed.

"..." Ed shook his head. "That's more than alright." He turned to Paninya.

She peered out the back of the tunnel to see Roy coming around the corner. "Here he comes." They were on a bit of hill, so she had a better view than she would on flat land. "He's by the gas station...wait...he's pulling in...getting out...pumping gas."

He whipped around again. "That stuff does calm you down, right?" Ed looked meticulously at the joint.

"Should..." Aria said. "Of course...if you're going to do that, you shouldn't be driving. Don't you remember what happened to Al? He couldn't even walk." She wiggled a finger at him.

"But Al's a shit head." Russell said, placing the little white stick back in his mouth. "

"Here he comes." Paninya said. "We should get to the other end."

"Drive safely." Leo warned Ed, giving him a firm pat on the shoulder. They all hopped into Leo's little car and drove off.

"Ehhh..." He sighed. Ed was left there alone, standing next to his vehicle, his mind wired with possibilities. What if this? What if that? But he knew that this would be for the best. Not that he wanted to impress Winry, at least not with this race, but he did want to get Roy away from all of them. Especially Aria. With Roy on his way up to the end of the tunnel, just an ear shot away from the school by that point, Ed waited.

Finally, reaching his destination, Roy pulled up along side Ed and stepped out of his vehicle. "Hello friend." Roy said in his usual 'feigned kindness' tone. "Ready to burn a little rubber, squirt?"

"Let's just race faggo; I don't swing that way."* Ed seemed to lose control of his tongue momentarily. He stopped and looked at Roy. "...let's go." Ed glimpsed another guy getting out of the car. He was tall and thin, his hair was cut into a mohawk that was dyed a bright neon orange. "Who's he?" He looked at his cloths, there was a lot of plaid involved with his ensemble.

"Him? He's going to be our starting man. Our flag if you will." Roy watched his friend take a bike from the trunk of the car. "You better not scratch that paint job, Vato."

"Not to worry." He said, closing the trunk. He wheeled it around and parked it between the two cars. "Alright, dudes. Get behind your wheels!" He said, his squinted eyes watching the two contestants take their spots and then the seat belts fastened.

Ed swallowed a huge lump in his throat.

"Alright. We're only having one go of this, so make er' count!" He had a ping pong paddle in his hand. "Also, I couldn't find a flag. But I did however find a paddle with red on one side and green on the other."

"Would you hurry it up!" Ed yelled.

"Ok, ok...geez, take a chill pill." He held up the paddle, red side facing the two drivers. "...I have chill pills in my bag if you want one."

"GET ON WITH IT!!!" The two of them yelled.

"Fine! Ready, steady, go!" He flashed the green side, then, quicker than the blink of an eye, they were both off.

Ed laid his foot down on the gas pedal, making him speed faster than Roy ever so slightly. "Huh...why isn't he trying to pass me...I'm only going 90."

No sooner did he say that when Ed saw Roy quickly tear up along side him and surpass him entirely. After he was so far ahead, he shot out in front of Ed, blocking him from passing. "Bastard...wait...this isn't the real thing." Ed resumed the race and veered off to the right and tried to get around Roy. He knew it was all staged, but he still had to make it look like he was trying.

Just as quickly as he pulled up, Roy slowed down and went along side the driver side of Ed's vehicle and went right to the back. "Take that ya' little prick!" Roy bellowed as he rammed the back of Ed's van. Roy had taken the time to equip his fender with a bumper so he didn't damage his own car.

Ed swerved off to the left, keeping perfect control of the van even with the jolt he incurred. "Woah." Ed prided himself on his defensive driving skills.

Just like last time, Roy pulled up along side Ed's right side and proceeded to circle him one more time, this time, he didn't ram the back.

They began going along the turn when they got into the home stretch. Ed carefully watched the wall of the passage way. "Wait for it...wait for it." The lights along the ceiling were making lines in his window, so it was becoming difficult to see. Ed did his best to not only keep on the road, keep up his speed, but he was also looking for the marker. "Did I pass it?" The large red electrical tape then came into view.

"Eat my bumber asshole!" Roy the jammed the button on his dash, activating his nitrous oxide, causing him to fly down the tunnel.

Fortunately for Ed, the jump in speed for Roy made Ed's 'jamming on the break' seem like Roy was just going that much faster. He managed to stop about twenty feet from the end of the underpass while Roy zipped on out of the end at full speed.

"Hey! Watch it asshole!" Russ yelled at the passing black car.

"He almost hit Leo! Are you ok?" Aria said, playing the part, and rushed to Leo's side to make sure he was ok.

Russell hit the record button to stop the recording and smirked. "Aaaaand-cut!"

The three friends crossed the road, watching out for Ed who was slowly pulling out of the tunnel. Ed stepped out of the van. "Is he coming back?" Ed looked out for Roy. "Yup, there he is."

Roy was pulling the car around in reverse; he too then stepped out of his Mustang. "Well, I don't think there's any question as to who won. Your Nos didn't work so..._You know what that means_." He sing-songed the last section of his sentence.

"Sure do." Edward began. "It means we video taped just you, not only trespassing on a blocked off road, but we also video taped you speeding out of said passage." He hooked his thumb over his shoulder to Aria and Paninya replacing the '**do not enter**' sign. "So unless you want to lose your license, I suggest you back off."

The one with the green hair waved with the camera. "To think, you fell for the whole thing."

Roy was dumbfounded. "You little-" He began to reach out to him.

"Ah-ah-ah." Ed waved a finger at him. "Don't want to get caught on tape for beating up a minor. You'll just plain ol' go to jail for that."

"You can't show that video to anyone! I'll lose my seat in university if I lose my license. It's crucial!" Roy pleaded, arm outstretched as if to steal the camera away form Russell.

"No worries." The little red head comforted him. "If you make yourself invisible, I don't see any reason to show this to anyone."

"...bastards...fuck..." Roy shook his head and went back to his car. "I hope Vato still has some of those chill pills." He said, closing the door to his car. That being all said and done, he sped off down the road.

Paninya stood there in shock. "It worked...it bloody well worked!" She shouted. The group took a short while to celebrate the success of their plot.

"Alright. Let's see the memory card, I'm going to transfer it to my hard drive. It's good to have a copy, I'll burn it to disk too." Ed looked at Russell.

"Right." He said. Reaching for the memory card slot, he popped it open to reveal nothing. "Aaaaahaha. I forgot to put the memory card in." He snickered.

"You stoned fucker!" Paninya clipped him in the back of the head with a firm fist.

"Um." Aria began. "What he doesn't know...can't hurt us....right?"

The group exchanged glances. "Yeah." They said together. They decided to keep this little secret to themselves, deeming it to dangerous to let this bit of information go to anyone else.

* * *

Al sat at the computer desk, alone, filling out the appointment form for the health clinic at the school. "I hope this is just paranoia." He had just looked up every possible STD known to man, and from his diagnosis, he had every one. But, since he wasn't a doctor, he decided to leave the diagnosing up to them.

He racked his brain, trying to remember more of the party. Maybe he had done more than he thought he did. If he had caught something from someone, it would explain his random string of illness. First the weakness, then the nausea, the lack of sleep and now, a supposed bladder infection.

"I'm in bad shape." He rested his head on the desk, mind flaring with possibilities.

* * *

*For those of you who don't know this: _Rubber_ is a slang term for a condom. So Ed's little retort was a rejection at the misunderstood phrase "burn a little _rubber_." Burn refering to the friction. :P

But there you have it. After this next little arc, I'm going to time skip till...maybe end of the year exams...maybe not that far. I'm just excited to get them to grade eleven. XD


	23. Episode 23 Trapped

Alright. I'll not dwell on this little bit all that much because I want to get to the exams at the end of the year. We'll spend a few chapitras here and then move on.

I'm going to get Ed a little more involved though. I love Ed to death, but I never use him. I guess this is the 'sympathy for a character' I was hoping not to deal with. Oh well, just another bridge I need to cross.

Hope you like this one. I'm trying to be a bit serious now...lets see how it works.

* * *

**Episode 23 - Trapped**

* * *

One of the simplest tasks one could partake in during the course of the day, had turned into an overbarring and unenjoyable task. Al leaned against the wall next to the boys bathroom in the school, sweating bullets and slightly out of breath. Just using the washroom took an amazing amount of will power due to the fact it brought on excruating pain.

Not wanting to deal with it any longer, Alphonse had gotten up an hour earlier so he could turn in his appointment sheet before anyone was really at the school. Fortunatly for him, they had a cancelation, so they just penciled him in for after school at four thirty. He wasn't looking forward to it, but at the same time, he couldn't wait.

"Panting?" Breda said, approaching the open door with his team mate and friend standing next to it. "Should I give the bathroom a minute, or is it safe?" He said in a joking manner.

Al shook his head. "It's safe...I just, ran..." He lied.

"Oh, still not feeling well?" He said with concern.

Not wanting to say anything to anyone about his painful problem, Al nodded. "Yeah, breakfast just did want to sit."

Giving him a pat on the shoulder he looked for a teacher. "Did you want to go home?" Figuring that showing a teacher that his friend was in bad shape, would help his case if he wanted to go home.

Al shook his head. "I can't afford to miss school. I'll be fine." He composed himself. "I'll just drink some water...or I'll just wait for lunch." He knew he wasn't sick anymore, but he was way too proud to admit to something like this.

Two weeks is what they told him. They said that the results would take about two weeks to come in, and for the time being, he was told to abstain from having sex. Like that was going to be a problem. Not only was he not involved that deeply with anyone, but he didn't think that he _could_ with the amount of pain he was in.

The day passed slowly, gym class was the worst. Once again, track was on the agenda. "Fucking friction." Al cursed unders his breath as he leaned down on his knees. "Almost done though." Running was not doing him any amount of good; it was at that moment he found out just how much track pants could feel like sandpaper on the more sensitive areas when you have a bladder infection.

"You OK Al?" Riza's voice sounded in front of him. Alphonse glanced up briefly. He could see Riza in front of him, her long blond hair tied back in a bun and a sweat band around her forehead, allowing for a few strands of her bangs to fall out as she leaned over to talk to him.

Al stood up, keeping eye contact with the pretty girl in his midst. "Yeah. Just a little tired. I guess I'm not one hundred precent yet."

Giving him a concerned look, she stood up straight. "Take it easy Al, you don't want to land yourself in the hospital." She smiled and continued her last running lap.

"Hmm..." He watched her run off. She had a really cute face and a nice body. '_I don't know why I didn't notice her sooner..._' Alphonse was starting to get the feeling that Winry might not be interested in dating, so going to one of her equally as cute friends might suffice. He did however keep that idea on the back burner, he had more important things to worry about.

* * *

Al endured the rest of the day, and fortunatly for him, the clinic gave him some antibiotics to help with the bladder infection. A full forty-eight hours before he felt any significant difference. Amoxicillin was the drug of choice that they handed him at the end of the day. They had a small pharmacy for situations like this, so it saved him from shelling out money for a prescription. He was hoping that this was going to be the last of his worries, and that this whole 'STD' thing was just paranoia.

Al laid down in his bed, still sore from his recent trip to the facilities, turning the bottle of antibotics around in his hand, he sighed. "I hope this is it, I'm sick of this."

"Hey Al. Can I come in." Ed knocked on his door.

"Sure." He sat up and faced the door.

"Something just crossed my mind." He said, closing the door behind himself, and then, making his way to the computer chair, he rested. "Something should mention...Clause was with someone else at that party." He could see his brother become worried. "Yeah...she was with Carlo. And I heard through the grapevine that he's out sick. You don't think this could be anything serious. Did something else happen at the party that you're not remembering?" Ed folded his hands and leaned forward. "Maybe you did more with her than you thought?"

Al shook his head. "No. I went to the clinic today and they said it was just a bladder infection." He held up the bottle of pills. "See."

"That's good. Because I was going to tell you to drop a hint to Clause to go and get tested too. But if you're sure." He stood up. "All the better."

"Right." Al watched his sibling get up from the swivle chair. "Wait...where did you find that out?" He said rather on edge, knowing it must have been when he was over at Winry's.

"Grapevine, remember?" That being said, he left the room.

"Hmm..."

* * *

"What do you think about this one?" Reanna flashed yet another dress to her daughter. "I want to avoid white at all costs. Too overdone."

Aria tilted her head off to the side. "It's nice...but that's a hell of a lot of buttons." She pointed to the arms, from the wrist to the shoulder was nothing but buttons. "Not only would it be a pain to get on, but it would be a pain to get off."

"Yes. It's best not to keep your man waiting." She snickered.

"Ah, mom. I don't want to hear that." She burried her head in the couch cushion.

"Oh lighten up. You know it happens." She rolled the magazine up and tapped her daughter on the head.

"So, still doesn't mean I want to hear it out loud." She sat bak against the arm of the sofa. "Try not to go for anything too poofy either."

"I like poofy." She flipped to another page. "Like this one." She referenced a dress that was poofy to the power of ten.

"Oh god, I don't think we'd be able to fit you through the door in that one. Ech." She cringed at the overdone, gaudy wedding dress."

"We'll be in a church, the doors are huge." She smiled, still flipping through the pages.

"I know....but not that big." Aria smiled and pointed over her mom's arm. "That one's nice." She pointed to a dress that was relativley form fitting, a light lavender color and just a little bit of lift to it.

"Nice an expensive. I need arms and legs to wear a dress, and if I was to get that one, I'd have to pay an arm and a leg to get it." She did however take time to admire it though. "It is nice though."

"True." Aria was on top of the world. It wasn't too often that her and her mother got to spend time together, so she was cherising every moment. "But it still is a little early. I mean, you haven't even picked a date...or compiled a guest list." Aria dropped her first hint.

"That's right." She pulled her legs up on the coach and faced Aria. "First of all, let's think of where the wedding is going to be." They went over a few different locations that seemed fitting. They spent the rest of the evening, up till eleven, planning out locations, times, food and all the other decisions that needed to be made.

Jean had said that he wanted to leave most of the planning up to Reanna; not that he didn't want to do it, it was because he felt she would be more creative. If she wanted help though, he said he'd be there.

Everytime her mother would bring up the reception after the wedding, she would nudge at inviting her friends from school. From the feeling she was getting, it sounded like she was planning on inviting them all along. Now all that mattered was if Santisha was going to show up. The plan was almost in motion. It was then that she realized that she liked plotting; just like the race against Roy. She just crossed her fingers that this one went as smoothly as the last one.

* * *

As the days passed, Al's pain barely subsided, on top of that, new symptoms seemed to arise. He was having cold sweats during the night and even his vision was starting to blur from time to time. Whatever the test results were, he was hoping the cure was as quick and effective.

He took his ring finger and scratched at his neck right below his ear. It seemed that his right ear was itchy.

"Guess what I just heard guys." Kain said, coming over to the rest of the group. They had collaborated at the A&W at the mall for their mozza burger deal after school. "Carlo has Aids."

The guys from the basketball team cringed. "Seriously?" Bread said in disbelief.

"Yeah. His girlfriend has it too. They're both not coming back to school for a while." He said in a very darkened tone. "He said he had no idea where he caught it either. But he's thinking it was that girl from Claus's party."

The group mourned over the misfortune of their friend. Al too mourned, but only for his own fate. He knew the whole story of what happened at the party, and it was becoming more and more clear to him what was wrong.

Managing to hold it in, Al regreted not listening to his brother that night.

In the evening time, after all his friends had left the mall, he stepped out the back door, not really caring what sort of unmentionables may be lurking about. He was becoming tired and in a lack of better judgment, he declined the ride home his friends offered. The only reason the back door was picked over the front was becaue if he went out the front, he would have to go around the entire mall to get to the bus stop.

"What are you doing out here?" An gruff voice accosed him.

"Huh? I'm go to the bus stop." He really hoped it was just a bum asking for money, he wasn't looking forward to defending himself.

"Oh..." The figure sat up against the wall, a cigarette in his mouth and a cloud of smoke around his head. "Care to join me?" He said, extending the little stick to him, the red embers clinging to the tip.

"..." Al peered through the very vague amount of light he had to work with. "Wait a minute...your voice sounds familiar." He took a step closer. "Hey! I know you!"

Russell looked up through his faded green hair. "Oh it's you." He said with surprise. "Whatever. Join me?" He said once again, a rough tone to his voice, more than likely due to the smoke inhalation.

Al looked skeptical; but it was at this point, that he just stopped caring what was right and what was wrong, because by his knoledge, nothing else was going to matter after he got his test results back. No basketball, no dating, no kids, further down the line. Not anything.

He joined Russ for a puff that Thursday night, hoping to ease the pain.

* * *

*stabs little Al voodoo doll* ...what? You all have your hobbies, I have mine.

Kidding, but like I said, this one won't last too long. You people are reading, but I only have one reviewing. :( Come on, let's have a little feedback after my long break.


	24. Episode 24 Last Few Days

Well, here is the end of this Arc. Then we just to exams. I is excited. Lulz...and hungry. I'm going to lunch.

* * *

**_Episode 24 - Last Few Days_**

* * *

Al did his best to be quiet when entering the front door. He told his parents that he was staying out late and not to wait up for him. So long as he was back by midnight, there would be no argunment. Even though Al was a fan of fibbing, he was good to follow cerfew. Turning the knob as he closed the door, he did his best not to make a sound.

"You're home." Ed said, looking at him from the other side of the living room over the book he was writing in. "Good, now I don't have to play the bad guy."

Al was beyond confused. "What?" Was all he could muster.

"Oh." Edward began. "Mom and Dad wanted to go to bed, so they got me to stay up and if you weren't home by midnight, I was to wake them up and they were going to meet you at the door. Lucky you, huh? You're home and off the hook."

"...what?" Still confused, it seemed that words were lost to him.

Peering across the room to his brother, Ed squinted. "You alright...you're acting weird."

"What? No, I'm ok." 'What' seemed to be the word of choice. "I'm goin' to bed." He approached the stairs, they seemed to be taking on an interesting array of movement. The bright wood contrasted with the dark carpet and for Al, at the time, was very intruging. He paused to admire it.

"Alright...then why do you smell like smoke?" Ed proded. He wasn't planning on telling the folks, he just saw fun to torment him. "Kind of like pot actually."

Al froze, dead in his tracks, it seemed like he was found out. "...maybe." He hesitated. "Come on, you can't tell dad, he'll be pissed. What do you want?" He was slightly frantic.

Cashing in on Al's lowered state of reasoning, he smirked. "Want?" Truth be told, Ed wasn't looking for anything beyond conversation. "Well..." He began. "Tell me one thing. It wasn't just a bladder infection, was it?"

Nodding to his brother, he ran his fingers through his own hair. "They don't know until my test results come in. But they gave me the pills as a 'just in case'."

Taking in the information, Edward nodded. "Alright. Goodnight." Ed went back to what he was doing, a simple sudoku puzzle in a book he bought at Coles.

"Cool." Carefully, he headed up the stairs to his bedroom, Ed followed close behind.

"So tell me, where'd you get it from?" Ed leaned against the door of his own room Al was halfway through his.

"Your buddy with the green hair was out back of the mall. I ran into him when I was going for the bus at like, nine." It was nearly eleven at that point. "So I had to wait and get the ten o'clock bus. He's actually a pretty nice guy, told me all about Roy too. Way to PWN him." Al absent-mindedly used internet slang.

"Yeah, it was pretty crazy. So, what are you going to for the rest of the night?"

Al shook his head. "What I have to do is to go to bed and stop thinking about ducks. Goodnight." That being said, Al turned around and shut his door.

Ed stood by his room, confused beyon all means. He turned around jarringly, pausing every few inches, hesitating as if he wanted to go to bed, but he also wanted to talk to Al about what he meant.

Just then Al's head poked out his door. "Wait...why the fuck was I talking about ducks?" He eyes were shut in concentration.

Ed shrugged. "I have no idea Al."

"Oh, never mind then. Goodnight." He watched his brother enter his own room.

"Goodnight, Al"

Alphonse entered his room and immedatly, he crashed on the bed. Clumsily, he tugged the blankets over himself for warmth. It was then that it was the first time in days that he actually felt like he could rest.

Morning rolled around and Ed got up early for the sole fact he needed to see if Al was functional today. "Get up...come on." He did his best to shake him awake.

"Potatoe salad?" Al said in his sleep.

Ed became frustrated. "Get up!" He gave him a shot in the shoulder.

"Ow! Dammit. What do you want." Al rolled over and placed his back to his sibling.

"I want to know how you're feeling."

"Pissed off cause you hit me the fucking arm. Why?" He said with teeth.

Thinking it would be obvious, Ed huffed. "You were really out of it last night. Remember what happened at Clause's party? You could barely move the next day." He reasoned with him.

"...ehh...I'm fine...let me wake up first." Al shuffled his feet beneath the covers. "Can we go to Do'flickies for breakfast?" He said with a smirk.

"Do'flickies?" Ed said with confusion.

"Yeah, Do'flickies. You know when you're trying to say a word, but it just doesn't come out? Yeah, well Russell was trying to suggest that we go to Tim Hortons, but the word just wouldn't come out. So we just ended up calling it Do'flickies."

Ed laughed. "That sounds like Russ. So you're good to go?"

"Yeah...thanks." He said, still curled up in his balnkets.

* * *

Finally the last week was drawing close to an end. Al was detereorating further and further. Infection upon infection was poping up from all angles. His ear for one, the cut her got on his leg from the bleachers for another, the bladder infection that wasn't clearing up. Al swore if he managed to get rid of whatever it was that he had, he would never party that hard ever again.

He stood in the kitchen, standing above the kitchen sink, allowing the water to get cold for a drink. He had been feeling dizzy for the last several days and was dehydrated from the fever he had been sporting that didn't want to break. It was nothing short of a miricle that his parents didn't notice the poor condition he was in for the week, they were schedueled for another preformance at the end of the month, so they were praticing and ordering take out for the last while, so contact with the kids was minimal.

Alphonse looked in the reflective glass on the front of the cupboard, his eyes were sunken from lack of sleep and his skin was a ghostly pale from the lack of nutrition. He was a mess. It was confirmed at school as well, Carlo and his girlfriend both tested positive for Aids, so it looked like it was the only answer he was going to get today was the same they were given.

His appointment wasn't till six, so he decided to head home to eat first and then, get a cab back to the school later. He knew full well that when the results came back, there was no hiding from the rest of his family. Ed didn't seem too worried about him. Al recalled telling his brother that it was only a bladder infection, as to not worry him, so it appeared to be working.

Finally, the water reached the right temperature for drinking. Al reached into the cupboard for a glass. Taking one of the tall ones form the said, he removed it from it's resting place. In lieu of carefully placing it on the counter, it slipped form his hand. In a quick attempt to save the glass, he grabbed at it with his left hand. The glass hit the counter and shattered, Al's hand only close enough to get hit with the sharp edges as it broke.

"Dammit!" He said as he watched the blood from his hand spill on to the counter. Quickly, he moved over the sink and allowed the infected red liquid to flow helplessly down the drain.

"You ok Al?" Ed yelled from the other room.

"...yeah, I'll be ok?" He said with uncertainty.

"You'll be ok?" He quickly entered the kitchen to see red soaking his brother's arm and on the light green counter top. "Shit, Al! You're cut pretty bad." He grabbed a drying rag from the back of one of the kitchen chairs. "Here, I'll put some pressure on it."

"No! Don't touch me!" He yelled.

Ed was taken quite aback. "Alright. What's your problem?" He said, rather hurt. He was only trying to help him out.

Al averted his vision. "I don't want you to catch anything."

Giving it a second to sink in, Ed took a step back. "...you're kidding."

"No." He said, taking the dry rag from his brother with his clean hand. "I know all about what happened at the party. Clause was with Carlo, Carlo has aids, then she was with me...so that means..."

"Al..." He was at a loss for words. "You have to go to a doctor." Edward said with sencerity.

"I know. I actually have an appointment with the school clinic at six today, my test results are in." Al shakily wrapped the cloth around his cut. It was deep, not deep eough to call for stitches, but needed a serious bandage.

"I'll take you if you didn't have other arrangments." He did his best to sound sympathetic.

Al nodded. "Thanks, Ed..."

Quickly realizing that there was blood on the counter, he reached under the sink and pulled out the bleach. "Do you have the bleeding under control?" He noticed Al confirm with a nodd. "Good. You go sit down. I'll clean this up, I'll wear gloves and then I'll dress that wound. Then we'll head out."

"Sure."

* * *

"Thanks again Ed." Al said, his newly bandaged hand resting on his lap, gingerly folded with the other hand.

"It's ok...so...how are you going to tell Mom and Dad?" He asked, hoping Al was holding it together and not about to break down crying. In an off thought, he actually never recalled an instance when he remembered Al ever crying.

"Don't know...this sucks..."

Ed tried to come up with some comforting words, but nothing seemed to come to mind. Comforting words he felt were left for someone who might have another option if things worked out, but if this was what it looked like, there really were no words for Al.

"Alphonse Hohenheim?" The clinic worker said from his office.

"Hmm?" Al stood up alongside his brother.

"Want me to go in with you?" Ed asked.

"Yeah..."

Sitting down in the two of the three chairs provided, they watched the doctor go through a few files. "Alphonse H....here you are." The doctor placed a bottle of pills at the head of his desk in front of Al. "Take them right to the end, be very careful not to mis one dose. You don't want to relapse, then you'll be right back to where you are now."

"Right." Al said as he reached out to the little orange bottle.

"Wait." Ed interrupted. "Aids is a virus." He pulled the bottle form his twin's hand. "Ciprofloxacin? This is an antibiotic, it doesn't cure virsus...wait, that means."

"Al, you don't have Aids, you have Ghonnorea." The doctor corrected him.

"You are shitting me!!!" Al said as he stood up from his chair. "Holy shit. I had myself convinced that I had Aids, thank god!" Al raised his hands in the air. "Thank you so much. I think I'm the only person happy to find out they have Ghonnrea."

"Probably." Ed took the pamphlet the doctor was holding out, he skimmed it briefly. "But...you had way more symptoms than this."

The doctor scribbled some things down. "Well, if he _thought_ thathe had it, the chances of psycho-symatic ailments would be common."

"Come again." Al said, coming down off his cloud.

"In a nut shell, you thought you had it so much, that you started to exibit the symptoms. No doubt you were doing some reading up on the virus." He closed Alphonse's file.

"...huh?" Al was still confused.

"Eh. Basically, you tricked yourself into having it, is what I think he's trying to say." Ed did his best to clairify.

"Essentially." He smiled.

"But wait...Now...I'm not sure...I didn't sleep with anyone to get this...per-say." Al tried to not say it outright.

The older man leaned back in his chair. "Though it is rare, it can be passed oraly."

"Ah, makes sence." Ed stood up from his chair and they both exited the clinic. "Now that that's over and done with, wanna go to Do'flickies."

Al nodded. "I would love to go to Do'flickies."

* * *

There you have it. Al doesn't have aids. Ya' happy. :)

Just so you guys know, the 'Do'flickies' incident was actually based on a true story...not a word a lie. Also, so was the duck thing...sadly, that one just happened last night. DX


	25. Episode 25 Winry

Here I am, once again, with a chapter for you all.  
Opening a new arc, with a new start, I tell you I'm having a ball.

Heh, I rhymed. Seriously though, new arc and what not. Now it's time to focus on the potential romance between Ed and Winry. Who knows, maybe there's something between them.

Enjoy.

**_

* * *

_**

**_Episode 24 - Winry's Mistake?_**

**_

* * *

_**

Ed sat back at his desk, finished with the assignment at hand and was taking a few minutes to relax. His chemistry class was ending within the month and the materials to learn were becoming sparse.

Leo leaned over. "Ed. What are you doing after school?"

Drawing his attention to his friend, he thought for a moment. "I'm helping Winry study Bio, she's nervous about her exam."

He squinted at his friend. "Is there something going on that I should know about. You've been over her place a lot lately."

It was true, Ed had gone to her house at least once a week. Not for any elongated amount of time, just to help her study and do homework also any projects he helped out on. Ed was actually taking Bio in the next semister, so this was good pratice for him.

"Nothing at all. I'm just helping her go over work." He said in his own defence.

"Seriously then, you're not interested?" Leo wanted conformation.

"Seriously." Ed replied.

"Here's hoping, don't want to lose you to the Jocks." He scoffed.

"As if. I'm not the 'Jock' type."

Leo paused. "Does that mean Al is?"

"...Kinda'...maybe...not really. He's just sporty." He defended his brother time to time; he really wasn't a jock, he just fell into that crowd because he had more in common with them.

"I guess." Hesitating, he finally decided to ask. "So, what does Al think about you and Winry spending so much time together?"

"I don't know. He seems to have lost interest in Winry. Or at least he thinks I'm not interested in her."

"I thought you said you weren't interested." Leo caught him in a lie.

"I'm not."

"You said that Al _thinks you aren't interested in her_. Which means you are, it's just that Al doesn't know." Leo cleverly pointed out Ed's Freudian slip.

Ed paused. "Fine." He gave in to Leo's proding. "I'm interested in her, but it's noting I'm likely to presue."

"That's better." He smirked.

--------------------------------------

"So he had both?" Al said, sitting back on the patio furniture in Breda's sun room at the back of his house.

"Yup." He nodded, taking a sip of Pepsi. "Had Gonnorhea from the start, and got the Aids from sharing a needle with his girlfriend several hours later after the party. She got the hiv when she cheated on him with...uh, what's his face. Eh, I can't remember. Some old guy."

"Huh...they were both unfaitful and they both got screwed over." Al took in the information as an omen. '_Being faithful is a good thing._' Pausing for a moment, he pieced the information together. "So...Clause didn't catch anything then...so wait a minute...that means she didn't brush her teeth in between me and him."

The two adolesence looked at eachother, a look of sheer discust on each of their faces. "Uuuh." They cringed.

Through all the trouble the first year was laying on them so far, everyone was really glad it was at the halfway point. Winter was in full force and the spring felt as if it was miles and miles away.

"So, when are the rest of the guys showing up." It was Friday evening and Breda's parents allowed him to have people over because they were going out for the evening to a cabin party. One of the seinor players on the team was buying a some alcohol for them so they could have a drink while the folks were out. They omitted that part when convincing the folks of course.

Al stood up and went over to the wood stove to prod at it. "Think we should throw another one on?"

"Sure." He said, pouring himself some more pop.

----------------------

"Alright Ed...um, could I bother you to give me a ride to Breda's?" Winry said, closing up her books.

"Not a problem. If you don't mind my asking, what for?" Ed asked as he placed a few books in his book bag.

She shrugged. "I was promised rum and egg nog, and I love egg nog, espically when it's free." She grabbed a hair tie from around her wrist and tied her hair back in a thick pony tail. "The rum is just an added bonus."

He nodded. "Cool. Actually, that reminds me, mom asked me to pick some up." Edward thought about last year around the holiday season when egg nog was last being sold. He was kind of sad that it was only sold in winter.

"Why not come with me afterwards? That way I'd at least have one guy there who's not pawing at me." She tightened the tie with one more wrap around.

Hesitant, he thought about going. "Well...Al's going to be there, probably. It's just a little weird hanging around with his friends."

"And what am I?" She said, kind of hurt.

Quickly catching himself with being insensitive, he corrected his statement. "What I meant was, it's going to be him and all his friends and your friends, I'd feel bad bothering you the whole night if you wanted to spend time with them. That's all."

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it Ed. You'll have fun, and you don't have to drink if you don't want to."

He thought about it. "Maybe not this time."

She huffed. "Fine...but I'm dragging you with me one of these times. You're so nice to me, I want to pay you back somehow." She smiled.

Not being able to help the red in his cheeks, he smiled. "I'll think about it. I'm just a little sketchy after what happened to Al."

"True enough...do you mind us heading out now?" She looked at the clock, it was dark outside, but it was only five.

"Not a problem." He smiled. Ed was beginning to think that his persute of Winry might be more likely than he originally thought. Not getting his hopes up was a good idea, but he played with the idea of actually asking her out.

-----------------------

After finishing with the dishes, Ed decided to give his brother a call. Al had asked to be checked on, just in case there was a repeat of the last party he went to. Dialing Al's cell phone number, he heard ringing coming from the living room. Reluctantly, he hung up the house phone with his thumb and released the button once again. Fortunatly for him, Al left the house phone number that he was at with him.

"Hello?" A voice sounded through the phone, he didn't recognize it.

"Hey is Alphonse there?" He asked over the music in the background. It wasn't too loud, but still, he had to speak up.

"Yeah, who's this?" The guy asked.

"It's Ed. I just wanna' know if he needs a ride."

"I'll ask." He covered the mouth piece just so he wouldn't deffen Ed. "Hey Al? You need a ride, Ed's on the phone.....alright." The phone was no longer muffeled. "He said no, he's crashing here."

"Alright, thank you."

"Woah, hold on. Winry wants to talk to you." He could hear her voice in the background.

"Hey Ed." She said in an overly cheerful manner. "Wasup'?" It was obvious she had been drinking.

"This is it. You sound like you're having fun." He laughed to himself, he never really took Winry to be the 'partyer' type, she seemed more reserved and mature.

"I am...but I'm tired now. Would you gimmy a ride home. If it's not gonna be a bother." She sounded concerned.

Allowing a few different scenarios run through his head of what might happen if he was around her while she was drunk, he shook his head. "Not a problem. Do you want me to leave now?" He looked at the kitchen clock, it was only ten, so he was still allowed on the road. "Remember, I can't drive after midnight."

"Oh no, no. Now would be good."

"Alright. I'm getting my coat on now."

"Thakns." That being said, she hung up the phone.

Ed did the same, pondering why she was leaving soo soon. Maybe she was just tired and wanted to go home, but then what if Roy didn't keep his end of the bargin. Hoping for no drama, he headed out.

Trying his best to follow the directions Al had left him, he finally managed to find his house. As he feared, Winry wasn't out on the front step waiting for him. He waited a minute, crossing his fingers that she was just inside out of the cold and was periodically checking out the window for him. Not even seeing anyone in any of the windows in the front, he assumed they were all in the back. Al had mentioned that he had a sun room at one point, so they must have been there.

"Son of a..." Ed zipped up his coat and stepped out of his vehical, making sure to lock the doors, he stepped into the snow lining the roadways. Winters were always cold, it didn't help that there was a lake nearby, the cold wind blowing off of it chilled you right down to the bone.

Making it up to the side door, Ed pushed the doorbell and waited patiently. Breda, being the only one in the house who actually lived there, pushed the door open. "Yo, sup?"

Ed waved. "Hey, nothin'. Um, I'm here to get Winry, she wanted a ride home."

"Sure." He smiled. "Come on in for a sec." He held the door open for him.

Stepping inside the house, he admired the paintings on the walls. "Wow. Where did all these come from?" He said, referencing all the artwork.

"Oh, those?" He said as they both headed down to the hall to the sun room. "Just a hobby of mine."

Most of them were abstract art, but there were a fer portraits up. "They're amazing...wow."

"Ya' think?" He looked at them in passing. "Thanks. I didn't think they're anything special, but I'm glad someone liked them."

Ed was wowed, he always figured Jocks to be brainless sport fanatics, but Breda had some real talent. The nicest one was, from the looks of it, a pencil sketch done of him and his parents. It looked as though it was based on the picture on a nearby shelf.

Finally making it to the back porch that was lined with windows, he set his eyes on Winry, who, at that time, was curled up in the armchair closest to the wood stove, dozing slightly on her own right hand. Al was nowhere in sight, Ed sighed in relief. Walking up to Winry, he touched her arm lightly. "Winry. Ready to go?"

She came to and smiled. "Hey Ed. Thanks for showing."

He could see that he face was red from ear to ear, it was apparent that she enjoyed the egg nog to it's fullest extent. "Sure. Need some help up?" He extended his hand.

Taking it lightly, Winry rose to her feet, giving a teeter as she did so. "I shouda' stopped two drinks ago. But lets go." She walked to the exit, not befrore giving Breda a hug and thanking him for inviting her.

"Hey Ed." Breda said.

"Yeah?"

He smiled. "Would you have showed up if I invited you?"

"I don't see why I wouldn't." Edward said with uncertainty.

"Fine." Giving Ed a smiled, he raised a glass to him. "Al's a good guy, I'm going to assume you are too. I'll invite you next time. You better show." He pointed a finger at him, the rest of his hand holding on to his glass.

Giving the red head a smile, Edward nodded. "Sure."

Heading out to the vehical, he watched the young blond girl lean up against the side and fuss with the handle. "Is locked." Her forehead pressed against the glass.

"Hold on." Ed hopped in the van and popped the lock on the driver side door.

Winry got in and buckled her seat belt. "Thanks agian Ed." She said, relaxing in the passenger seat.

"No problem. I really didn't have anything better to do." He started up the van and headed towards Winry's house. Fortunatly for him, he found his way quickly and was at Winry's place before he knew it.

"I hate to bug you again...but it's icey, mind giving me a hand to the step. I'm sorry I keep bugging you for stuff." She said, he feet hanging over the edge near the snow.

He, once more, got out of the van and rounded the front. "I told you, I don't mind. You're a friend, remember."

She smiled warmly, her cheeks still ravaged with blush, maybe now a little more than before because of what Edward had said to her. "Thank you." She took his hand and got out into the cold night air.

Even though it was cold and wet out, the night sky was clear as a bell, not a clud to be seen. The clouds had all been snowed out a few days ago and hadn't had a chance to move more in.

Winry held onto Ed's arm as they both made their way safely to her door. "So um..." Ed began. "Is your mom and dad home? Won't they be cross with you?"

She shook her head. "I rarely drink, so they don't care, so long as I'm home before one in the morning."

Ed envied Winry's freedom. "That's pretty cool of them."

"I guess. Anyway, thanks s'again." She was still tipsy, if she hadn't have been so, she wouldn't have wrapped her arms around Ed's neck and gotten in really close to his lips.

Ed could feel his entire body start burning. "Winry?" He said, her only inches away from his own.

Snapping out of her stupor, she took a step back, sobroity slapping her right in the face. "Oh gosh...I'm sorry Ed, I forgot, we're not dating..."

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it...can you make it to your room ok?"

She nodded, she didn't seem as cheerful anymore. "I'm good, thanks." That being said, she headed off into her house, closing the door behind her.

After driving home and getting setteled in bed, he thought about what Winry had said. In the last couple months, he did notice them becoming closer, but for her to say 'she forgot' that they weren't dating sent a berrage of ideas though his adolecent mind. "Maybe we..." Shaking the idea form his head, he just kept telling himself that she was under the influnce and wasn't thinking right.

* * *

There you go. Just a tiny snippit of what is to come. I've had an idea for Ed an Winry's relationship for the longest time, and now, I finally get to present it to you. I know for a fact, if you've like this fic so far, you'll love my latest idea.

Tell me what you think. :P


	26. Episode 26 Upsidedown

Here for all of you again is another chapter. I hit a rythym and can't stop now. I love EdxWin, so not it's time to get it on the go!

Here you all have it, some EdxWin fluff for you all.

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* * *

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_**Episode 26 - Upsidedown**_

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* * *

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The halls of the school were crowded and Ed managed to weave his way through. He finally got to a clearing in an unused section of the hall and composed himself. He hated being crowded. Swinging his bookbag around to the front, he placed a binder that he'd been carrying under his arm into the front pouch. It was stuffed to the zipper, so he wanted to carry it, but the halls were just that busy that morning. Monday's were always troublesome.

Winry hadn't called him at all over the weekend. There were occasions where she didn't call, but now, after what happened on her step, that '_almost kiss_', might have made her feel somewhat awkward around him.

Edward was really down the whole morning, all his classes seemed to drone on till lunch. Winry was off, possibly sick, so that didn't help the uneasy feeling he had.

"Eh." Ed fussed while sitting on the bacement stairs, leading down to the drama room's stage as he finished off his lunch.

"What's wrong with you?" Aria said before biting into her sandwich, peanutbutter and banana from the looks of it.

"Nothing...just worried." He said, peering out one of the small windows near the ceiling. They were underground when they were on the lowest level, so all the windows were up high.

"It's because Winry's out today I bet." Russell every so un-elequoently pointed out.

"No it's not." Ed snapped at him.

Taken quite aback, Russell backed down. "Sorry dude...I was kidding...but really, what's wrong?"

Paninya interveaned. "Yeah, you seem in a really foul mood today. What's wrong?"

His friends were all quite concerned about him, but he couldn't tell them what was wrong, he didn't know how they'd react to him and Winry and that situation that went down. "Sorry...I guess I just had a bad weekend. Al went out and I was stuck with all his chores." He equivicated. Sure, that made the weekend annoying, but the incedent with Winry was what was bothering him. He neglected to mention that to them. What was worse, he was actually starting to think that maybe they'd have a chance.

* * *

Wanting a few minutes to himself after school, he headed up to the library and sat at the middle most table. The renevations that were being done had finally been completed and the library looked very sophisticated. He laid out his books to finish up the project that had been given to him in English when he realized it. He was sitting at the same table he had helped Winry at on the first day. He sulked to himself and sunk down in the chair.

Briefly looking out the windows that led into the hallway, something caught his eye; it was Winry, talking to one of her teachers. Figuring she was getting work that she missed, he did his best to not make eye contact, he figured it would just be too awkward for her.

He ridgidly stared at his book, not wanting to talk to her. Not that he didn't want to talk to her, he just didn't feel like he could at the moment. It was complicated.

Shortly there after. "Hey Ed." A female voice sounded from behind him.

His back stiffened. "Uh, hi Winry." He said shyly. He wasn't mad with her for what happened on Friday, just uneasy.

"Mind if I talk to you?" She said, drawn back, from what Ed could tell.

"Not at all. How come you were out today, not feeling well?" He did his best to make small conversation.

She shook her head. "I had an eye appointment, and they put these drops in my eyes that make my pupis dialate."

Ed was shocked. "Do you have an eye illness, or was just a routine check-up." The small talk was picking up, Ed was becoming more relaxed.

"Oh, it was just a check-up. I just don't like coming to school afterwards because it takes a while for the drops to wear off. They make my pupils huge and I look like a demon." She laughed at herself.

He snickered as well and then nodded. "I've done that before...so, do you wear glasses? Huh?" he looked at her eyes, one was green and the other was blue. "Hey Winry, I think you only put one color contact in."

"What?" Winry pulled a small mirror from her pocket and examined her eyes. "Oh." She said with an unsure tone. "Seems so." She put the mirror away. "Um, Ed...what I really wanted to say...I'm sorry. I was drunk and I made you feel really uncomfortable, I imagine, and I just wanted to appoligize." Tears weren't welling up in her eyes, but they started looking more moist than normal.

A slight panic rung through his body. "Don't worry about it." Ed did his best to calm her down. "Drinking makes people do crazy things...and I really didn't mind." He said that last part rather sheepishly.

Winry took a step back. "Oh." She cracked a small smile. "That's good to hear...so...are you busy tomorrow? We just have one more lab...so I was wondering if you could help me out. I want to make this last one really count." She sounded more hopeful.

Edward smiled at her. "Alright. I'll see if I can get the van so we can drive to your place."

"Great. Thanks for being cool with me Ed." She leaned down and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "See you tomorrow." With that out of the way, she waved and exited the library.

Getting his bad mood trampled, Ed closed the book he was reading and stretched. "Maybe, afterall...heh."

* * *

Exams were going to be starting in only four days, so Winry was cramming as much Bio into her head as possible. "I only need a couple sicences...right?" She said, scribbling down another note.

"Yeah, I think you need two...I'd suggest just taking science rahter than Bio next year just to get it out of the way. English seems to be more your fortay anyway." Ed said, looking over a few test scores; no failures, one came close, but the rest were around sixty to seventy precent, although the lab's were all high scores. English scores didn't see anything below an eighty-five, so it seemed as though that was where she excelled.

"I know, but my parents keep pusing me into science." She sat against the head board of her bed while Ed sat on the end.

"They're doctors right? I guess that's to be expected. But I find parents tend to think _their_ profession if the be all, end all, to carreer choices." Ed repositioned his legs, the right one was starting to fall asleep.

"I know, but they push me with everything. School, after school activities, jobs, populairity, beauty. I don't get a break."

"Beauty?" Ed was confused.

Winry blushed. "Well...can I trust you with something?"

He nodded.

"...the summer in between grade nine and ten, the girl next door got accepted into a private school that my parents wanted me to go to. I refused, because I wanted to keep my friends here. She's pretty, smart, talented and my parents wanted the same for me, which I thought I had already. I don't know why, but they've been in competition with the people nextdoor for years. So, their response is to pull some strings, get me private lessons for cheerleading, make me the captain on the cheerleading team, and make me look more womaly than everyone around me." She referenced to her own chest. "Thus, they got me these."

Ed really couldn't help the color of red that his entire body turned. "Well...uh...I-uh...um..." Words weren't something that was about to happen for him.

"I didn't develop as quickly as the girl nextdoor, so they fitted me with double D's to tide me over." She said, her voice laden with shame.

"Well I..." Ed fought with his brain for some words, finally, he manged to get a couple out. "Really, who cares what you look like. I like you for you."

Winry was caught off guard by the comment. "Ed--" She hesitated.

"Listen." Finally, Ed got things in order in his head. "My mom is pushing me into art and my dad into sports. So I have two immovable forces pushing me in two different directions. As rough as it seems now, just do what makes you feel happy, and if the rents don't like it, that's their problem. I know it's hard to stand up to your own parents, but you're not trying to do anything to ruin your life, you just want to follow your own dreams and aspirations, and despite what they have to say, there's nothing wrong with that."

Winry took Ed's kind words to heart, now it was she who was lost for words. "Edward..."

He smiled. "Just out of curiosity, what is it that you want to do?"

She smiled and leaned over the edge of her bed and grabbed a book from underneath. It was a hard cover book, dark burgundy in color. "Cars." She held out the book to him. "I love working on them, looking at them, driving them. SO much power behind a machine makes me dreamy."

It then made mose sence as to why Winry was so extatic about the race with him and Clause that one morning. "That's great." He smiled as he skimmed through the book. "A bit too compliicated for me, but if that's your calling, I suggest you go for it. People are always going to need cars, so they're always going to need someone to either build em' or fix em'."

"Thanks Ed." Winry stuffed the book back under her bed. "My parents wouldn't understand, besides, liking enginenearing isn't feminine." She waved her hands beside her face as she spoke.

"Heh. Being feminine also doesn't get you a job." He thought about it. "Well...I guess it could. Modeling and such."

Winry scoffed. "Me? A modle? No thanks. I like eating, and I'm not that tall."

"I think you're pretty enough. But stick to engines, much more useful. Memorizing engine skymatics rather than memorizing the weight watchers chart is much more useful." He laid down and allowed his legs to hang over the side of the bed, hoping to encourage blood flow. "For me, I like science."

She laughed. "If that's the case, I bet you memorized the periodic table."

"Actually...I did." He smiled.

Winry allowed her mouth to hang open. "I call bullshit. Prove it." She glanced at her wall. "Oh! Close your eyes." They young blond girl pointed to the periodic table of elements on her wall for study purposes.

"What? You don't trust me not to look. Fine." He shut his eyes. "Hydrogen, Helium, lithium, berylillum, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, Silicon, Phosph-" Edward like to exell at science, so he had memorized the periodic table of elements by eighth grade.

At the midway point, his words shut themselves off and allowed the strange new sensation pass by his lips. It seemed Wirny harbored more feeling for Ed that he originally thought, she had taken advantage of Ed's closed eyes and planted a kiss on him.

Needless to say, Ed was once again at a loss for words, but he enjoyed the kiss just the same, regardless if it was upsidedown. Finally, a brief break in the embrace, Winry had lifted ferself up a little, just to see the look on Ed's face. He smiled. "I lost my spot."

"You dork." She sat him up and repeated her previous action, this time, right side up.

* * *

Moving right along, time to add in a little romantic comedy action between Ed and Winry. This is just the tip of the iceburg.

I actually got the idea from that when Winry made Ed feel awkward in the manga, and to calm himself down, he rattled off the table of elements. So I thought I'd incorporated it in my fic some. :)


	27. Episode 27 You and I

...You know guys...I'm in a really bad mood today (bad as in bummed)...but, here I am updating. (sigh)

I don't know...I guess I didn't get a good sleep last night...and I'm having problem with an addiction now. Eh...not very good. That might have something to do with it. I never thought that finding out I have a dependancy on something would bum me out so badly.

I'd say I'm trying to kick it...but...I don't want to at the same time. It's difficult. Shouldn't have done it in the first place...ehhhh.....sorry people. I just needed to vent.

Hope you like this chapter.

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_**Episode 27 - You and I**_

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Ed leaned up against Winry's headboard as he sat on her bed, with her right next to him, resting on his shoulder.

"Now...we can't tell anyone." She said with regret.

"What?" He said, rather confused.

"Don't get the wrong idea." She sat forward and turned around to face Edward. "If my parents find out I'm not dating a 'jock'-" She made quotation marks in the air with her fingers. "-then they'll forbid you from coming over."

Ed smiled. "They wouldn't do that. They're bluffing."

She nodded. "Well, with how paranoid they are about how others look at them, they would, in a heart beat." She leaned in and kissed him on the forehead. "So we have to keep this a secret...just for now. I'll figure something out with the parents. Promise." Finding someone she could connect with was difficult, so he didn't want Ed to be forcefully pushed away from her. "And when I mean we can't tell anyone, I mean anyone. Not until I have my folks convinced. Ok?" She fussed with his red shirt collar, the back was rolled up.

"...that's going to be tough...I mean, it kind of makes me feel like I'm liying to my friends. Leo did ask me if there was anything going on with us, and at the time, I told him there wasn't. But now...if this is how things are going to be...I don't know if I can lie to them. They've been really good to me."

Winry nodded. "I know...but like I said, it'll only be for a little while. Think of it as keeping a surprise a secret, rather than just witholding the truth."

He thought about it for a second. "I suppose there's no harm in that then. Alright."

"Great, I knew you'd understand." She kissed him again. "Besides, don't you think it would be best if Al didn't know? I know he had something for me."

Ed nodded. "True...but recently, I think he may have someone else in mind. I mean, you did keep ignoring him."

"Yeah." She agreed. "That's what I was going for. But who's he after now?"

"I think her name's Riza. The other girl with long hair on your team."

Winry couldnt help but laugh. "Riza? No. She's really picky with who she dates, and I can tell you right now, he isn't her type."

* * *

"Riza. Hey." Having had an easy time tracking her down, Al apporached her with a smile. He knew full well that she stayed after school to use the weight room; Riza was a base with her team, so strong arms and shoulders were a must.

"Oh, hey. What brings you here?" She said, letting go of the overhead bar attached to a series of weights. Sliding her arm across her forehead, wiping the sweat that was worked up off her skin.

"Nothing too much...I was just wondering what you were doing after school. I had nothing else to do, so I figured...smoothies at Orange Jullius?" He intentionally beat around the bush.

"I'm broke."

"I'm not...come on." He egged her on. "Lots of protine in em'."

Being hesitant, she agreed. "Fine. But no funny stuff."

Al raised his hands in defence. "No tricks."

* * *

She was a sophmore at their school, and second in command when it came to the cheerleading team. "So, how long have you been into cheerleading?" Al did his best to make small talk, even though, deep down, he really didn't care too much about her answer. It was cheerleading afterall, and he was mostly concerned about the skirts and how short they were.

"Well." She began. "I was in gymnastics for years as a kid, and then when juinor high came, it was right there. It's fun to throw people up in the air, and the outfits are super cute." She smiled. "Oh yeah, thanks for the drink. I was really hungry. This is like a meal in a cup." She sipped it with a sweet smiled on her face.

Al fawned over her. "They really are." He blushed a bit.

"So um...I should have asked this before we came here...is this a 'friend' outing? Or something more?" She said with uncertainty.

"Well...I guess it could just be friendly. No harm in that." He smiled. 'Friends for now' was what he kept telling himself.

"Ok...I just didn't want to make you feel bad or anything, cause, I'm kind of seeing someone at the moment...I'm sorry." She just blurted it all out.

Al was discouraged, but still glad she told him rather than stringing him along. "It's ok. Like I said, friendly." He smiled. It was a shame his plan failed, but he did get to spend some time with a pretty girl. Getting face time with cheerleaders was a good way to boost popularity, so he didn't consider the trip a waste of time.

"I'm glad you're not mad. Normally boys would be cross, but I'm glad you're different."

"You're not obligated to do anything you don't want to do, so I can't get mad." He was starting to sound more like Ed as the days went by. "Besides, there's no harm in spending time with other guys. He's not the jelous type? Is he?" Al then became a little worried, remembering briefly the story Ed told him about Roy. "What school does he go to?"

"Riverview College, first year, taking--political science. It's kind of nice having the security of someone older." She thought while sipping on her drink. "Aside from all that...since I can see you're really nice, how about I help you out with getting a nice girlfriend, I mean, it's the least I could do for turning you down. Is there anyone on the team you're interested in?" She probed as she poked with her straw.

"Well...I did kind of think Winry was pretty nice."

Riza shook her head. "Except her. She's not allowed to date."

* * *

"Also, I told everyone on the team, that I'm not allowed to date, just so boys would leave me alone." Winry cuddled up against Edward's chest. "Surprisingly enough, it doesn't stop all of them."

"That so? I suppose if you have everything worked out, there's no sence in me changing it on you." He wrapped his arms around Winry and held her snug.

"It's all one big plan, and soon, it shall all come together."

* * *

"You know, Clause really has a thing for you. Why not her?" Riza asked, stirring the bottom of her drink with the straw.

Al averted his gaze. "Listen, after what happened between us, she's lucky I'm even talking to her." He folded his arms.

"That's true. Even I thought that was pretty harsh. Hmm..." She thought hard.

"I know it's kind of shallow, but if it help, I like blonds." He pointed to himself. "My love for fair hair is built right into the genes."

She laughed. "Alright then. How about I talk to the other girls on the team, and see if there's any potentials."

"Awesome." Al paused. "Wait...why are you being so nice?"

She held up the drink. "Because you're being nice too." Riza beamed.

After talking it over a little more, Riza made a call to meet up with her friend Maria when Al went home. He walked alongside her right to the corridoor of the back entrance, he mentioned that going to the bus stop was easier that way. "So...uh...I hate to go back to this...but." He scratched at the back of his head. "If you weren't involved with anyone...do you think I might have a chance."

Riza smiled ruthfully. "Sorry Al, but it really wouldn't work." She gave him a pat on the shoulder. "But I'm sure you'll find someone to match you...huh?" She looked out the window.

He followed suit. "Oh, there's your friend. I guess I'll talk to you later." Al held the door open, allowing the taller, dark hair girl into the mall.

"Thank you." Maria smiled at Al.

He nodded at her. "See you in school Riza."

Maria leaned down and kissed Riza briefly on the lips. The blond girl smiled. "Sure. Talk to you tomorrow. Oh, and keep this hush-hush, some of the girls on the team don't know." That being said, Maria and Riza waved, linked hands with eachother and walked off.

"No prob." Al said as he gingerly turned around and left the mall. He nodded to himself. "That makes a whole lot of sence. She likes pie." He laughed at his own folley. Riza was right, they wouldn't work, for obvious reasons; but the help sure was welcomed.

* * *

Stealthly, Riza pulled Al aside during lunch the next day. "I did some talking to the girls." She said, rahter serious considering the topic.

"And, did any of them say anything?" Al was hopeful, despite her tone.

She pinched the skin on her nose between her eyes. "Well...not a whole lot. I mean, I only asked the ones who were single **and** blond, and none of them really said much of anything. But that's only four people. However, Nancy from the rugby team said she thought you were cute. So I think she might be a potential."

"Nancy?" Al thought for a moment. He spent a lot of time with the school sports teams since the weather made everything move indoors, and he didn't recall knowing a girl named 'Nancy'. "Which one's she?" He asked, still trying to think about it.

"Ok, she doesn't have blond hair, it's dark brown-red and she's really tall." Riza held her hand above her head to show how tall this girl she was talking about actually was.

He thought hard and then it hit him. "You mean that butch girl who looks like she could eat me for lunch?" Al quivered. Nancy was big, not terribly overweight, but she was a big woman, Irish in decent, so she was no one to cross as far as Alphonse was concerned.

"What?" Riza slung her hands behind her head. "I think she's cute."

Alphonse face-palmed. "I like girly-girls."

"Oooh...then there's Clara on the volleyball team...but I don't know...she's kind of skinny." She huffed.

Brightening up some, Al crossed his fingers. This time, he knew exactally who she was talking about. "And she said...?"

"She said she would '_bone_' you. I'm not sure what that meant, so I figured I bring it up." Riza pumped her fists together.

"YES!" Al raised his fists in the air.

"I guess she's pretty...but..." She averted her gaze.

"But? But what? She's hot." Al became quite excited. "Should I confront her?"

"Suppose so. But-"

Al cut her off. "Thank you." That being said, he gave her a quick hug and took off to find Clara on the stage.

"...oh well." Riza shrugged and walked off.

* * *

May I say, RizaXMaria - OTP :P

But there you go, the twins are following the same path now...or are they?


	28. Episode 28 Storm

I spell checked it! WOOT! I found a great online one that doesn't get thumped by work's firewall. YEA!!!

(breaths) Ok.

Now...we touch on something delicate at the end here. Not for the plot, but for the actual story. Read and find out. Now guys, I'm really going to need you guys in the coming chapters.

Enjoy. :)

* * *

**_Episode 28 - Storm_**

* * *

Al slinked around the corner of the Gym door and peeked through, trying his best to find this, Clara, girl. He had only seen her in team pictures, bust shot, but she had a pretty face, nice smile and she was 'girly-sporty'. She was defiantly a winner.

"Who are you looking for?" Riza asked in a whispered hush.

"Which one's Clara? They keep moving." He said, eyes traveling the floor, looking for the pretty girl that was promised to him.

She sighed and pointed off to a small girl sitting in the bleachers. "Right there."

Alphonse squinted in the direction of the girl. "EH?!" He pulled his head back in disgust. "There's nothing to her." He said, whispering loudly to Riza.

She sighed. "I told you. She's pretty, but she has an eating disorder. Also, she's actually on her last warning with the volley ball team. 'Eat something, or you're out.' Basically, is what they told her." She watched Al lean up against the wall and sink down to the floor. "She's trying to get better if that means anything...she's going to the meetings and she stopped taking diet pills."

Resting his forehead on his knees, Al sighed. "That's good I guess...but I kind of want someone now."

She sat on the floor beside him. "Why is it so important that you have a girlfriend now? Why not wait till you're in grade eleven and see if there's any grade ten's that take your interest?"

"Nah." He said, finally coming around. "I guess I just keep looking."

"Do you want me to keep snooping for you? I love snooping." She smiled wide.

Al smiled back, nodding. "Well, if you're having fun with it. Sure. Thanks."

Six o'clock was coming up fast and the sound of the wind outside was beginning to become a concern. It epically became a concern when the lights began to flicker. "Alright everyone!" Mrs. Curtis bellowed from near the stage. "The weather's starting to turn, so we gotta' pack it up and pick it up at a later date."

"She's right. It's getting pretty bad out there." Al said, balancing a basketball on top of his head as he looked out the gym windows near the ceiling.

"Yeah. Ugh." Breda huffed. "I can't wait till spring."

"It's good to practice indoors too." Kain began. "We have most of our games indoors, so it's best to get use to the lack of space sometimes."

"Suppose...I just hate the cold though." Al allowed the ball to roll off his head and he caught it in his hands. "Let's get this stuff away so we can change. Mind if I bum a ride?" He said, looking at Breda.

"Sure." The red head nodded.

* * *

"I think that's about all I can get in my head. Eh." Winry flopped back on her bed.

"Bio's on Friday, right?"

"Yeah...I don't want to study the night before, I'll just forget it." Winry finally managed to go through all her notes, right to the the very end, and it was only Tuesday. Unfortunately for them, the parents were home, so they needed to keep the affection to a minimum.

Winry's mother, Sara, popped her head in the open door and made eye contact with Edward. "The guest bedroom is ready."

Ed was quite confused. "Excuse me?" He asked Sara for clarification.

Sara pointed outside. "I through you knew about the storm?" The window in which she was pointing through didn't show much else other than snow.

Ed could see the snow buffeting the window. "Ah crap." He turned back to Winry's mother. "I'm sorry. If I knew the weather was this bad, I would have left long ago."

She held up a hand. "It's ok. You're helping my little girl with her studies, so I don't mind putting you up for one night." She wiggled a finger at him. "But don't make a habit of this."

He nodded. "Of course not. Thank you. I should call my parents."

Sara held up her hand. "They already called. They said it was alright so long as you were in a separate room."

"...Alright then." He turned back to Winry. "Do you want to keep doing this or-"

"Movie." She pointed to her TV, cutting Ed off in late sentence. Quickly she got up and pulled her beanbag chair out of her walk in closet.

"Movie works too. AH!" He yelled as a huge pink ball of a bean bag chair came flying at him.

"Snacks?" Sara said from the door.

"Sure." Winry said, getting comfy on her bed, tummy down, legs crossed up in the air.

"That'll be good." Ed said, placing the chair on the floor at the foot of Winry's bed and proceeded to sit a dent in the middle.

"I'll see what I can get together." That being said, she exited the room.

Ed leaned his head back on Winry's mattress. "I think she'd be ok with it."

"I asked already...she wouldn't be. I only hinted at it, but the answer was a 'no'." She kissed Ed on the cheek that was resting closest to her. "She's sure we're friends, and until I find a way to convince her otherwise, that's what she'll keep thinking."

Shrugging, he maneuvered himself into a comfortable spot. "Alright then...I guess I'm just excited. I want to tell someone." He smiled. "You _are_ my first girlfriend, but, I guess I don't have to tell you that."

Winry smiled. "You're actually my first boyfriend. So we both get to be excited together."

"Really?" Ed was shocked. "You're such a nice girl, how come you've never had a boyfriend yet?"

She shook her head. "I haven't met anyone I really click with...till you."

* * *

Later on that evening, Edward laid back in the bed that was made out for him and stared at the ceiling as the storm blew by outside. He pitied Winry's parents, they needed to leave by five in the morning to be at the hospital by six. He did take into mind that they were doctors, and they did have a more 'strict' lifestyle. Even still, it wasn't something he would want to do.

"_Psst_." He heard very lightly.

"_Yeah_?" He said in a whispered tone, his blue eyes searching around in the dark. It was bad enough that the lights were out, but his contacts were sitting quietly in their small, circular container, waiting for morning, so he was as blind as a bat.

"_Hey_." Winry said, sneaking into the guest room. She sat on the bed next to Ed and felt around blindly in the dark. "_Just wanted to say goodnight._" She leaned in and gave him a kiss in the dark.

"_Oh_." Smiling wide, he kissed her in return.

Sitting back somewhat, she spoke."_There's probably not going to be school tomorrow, so we can just hang out somewhere._" She kept her face really close to his, just so she didn't have to speak as loudly.

"_That would be cool; I had no other plans._" He kept his voice in a whispered hush as well.

"_Great. I'll make us something for breakfast and then we'll head out._" She kissed him one last time. "_Goodnight._"

"_G'night._" He smiled as he watched her feel her way, carefully, out of the room. It didn't feel like it was real. Why did he all of a sudden have a girlfriend and things be going so well. Edward felt it necessary to take extra precautions to make sure things would continue to go the way they were.

But from the way things were lining up, it looked like it was going to be sunny from there on out.

* * *

"I'll kill em'." Al said, staring out the living room window, trying to crack his knuckles. He had been doing so for the past twenty minutes, by then, they've been cracked as much as they can crack. "They will not find the body." He said with a scowl.

* * *

Ed stretched as he headed down the stairs. The smell of eggs and green tea filled the house and was powerful enough to drag Ed out of bed at eight o'clock.

"Morning Ed. Scrambled eggs and toast ok?" She asked from around her shoulder.

He entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. "Yeah. You didn't have to go out of your way though."

She shook her head while she cut up the toast atop the built in cutting board on her jade colored counter. "Don't worry about it. I hate just cooking for myself, feels wasteful."

"Heh. Seems reasonable." He watched her turn around and place the sectioned pieces of toast on a plate in mid table. "Uh, Winry." He examined her face. "Are you wearing your contacts?" He smiled.

Winry looked at him. "My contacts?" She glanced at Ed with confusion.

He snickered. "You put in a color one and a clear one again." He remembered back at the library that she did the same thing; one eye was blue and the other green.

She held a hand up to her face, pointing a finger at her eyes. "I'm not wearing my contacts. My eyes are naturally this color."

"...really?" Ed stood up from his chair and got really close to Winry's face. "..." He looked at her eyes, searching for a seam for a contact, finding none, he sighed. "Huh...I've never seen this before." He gazed at her eyes, fascinated.

"Glad you're not weirded out by it. I use to get made fun of as a kid for it, so my folks got me contact instead of glasses...actually, it's the reason we're living here. We moved when I was eight."

He looked at her, completely baffled. "They moved because you needed contacts?"

She shook her head. "We moved because I was being picked on, and they wanted me to be perfect. Remember?" She poked him in the forehead. "They're paranoid of what everyone things. Everyone thought I was weird, so we moved, then no one thought I was weird anymore."

"Kids are so harsh." Ed coaxed her.

"You don't think it's weird, do you?" She asked with concern.

"Weird? You know what's weird? Being attached to your sibling at birth, that's weird." He flashed his right arm with the scar. "Two different color eyes?" He lowered his arm. "I think that's pretty damn cool. It's so unique."

"Unique?" Despite the cold outside, Winry felt warmed by Ed's kind words. "I guess it is." She took the couple forks off the counter and laid them by the plates she laid out. "You've earned your breakfast." She said, quite pleased with Edward.

"Truth doesn't always hurt I guess." Taking the information he found out from Winry that day into consideration, he figured that maybe Winry's parents wouldn't take so kindly to him in the 'boyfriend' position after all.

* * *

"He spent the night over there!" Al crumpled his empty McDonalds cup in his right hand while he vented at Riza. They had both come to realize that they enjoyed each other's company, so they decided to hang out on their day off while they dug the school out of the massive amounts of snow that fell. McDonalds was the food joint of choice, they sat at a booth.

"I know Winry's parents, they would have had security high. There's no way there's anything going on. I mean, your brother, no offense, is kind of a dork. It's bad enough he's hanging out with the freaks, it's only a matter of time before they infect him. Don't worry, Winry said she wants someone who's perfect for her, so don't worry." She dipped her french fries in some Mac Sauce and took a bite. "And besides, remember, she's not allowed to date."

Alphonse huffed. "He did tell me he was only her tutor...I guess...but I'm still going to talk to him about it."

"Yeah. Oh!" She put her drink down quickly. "I forgot to mention, there's a transfer student coming in; she just moved to town. I only saw her for a minute, only because she was signing up for badminton. She's tall-ish, blond, has brown eyes." Riza held her hands out at either side. "Why not wait and she if she's a potential."

Giving it a brief thought, he nodded. "That's not a bad idea...did you catch her name?"

She nodded. "Her name's Sylvia."

* * *

Now...I don't like adding in too many OC's, but there was one less girl character than I needed, so I had to bring in a new one.

I hope she'll be likable. But since my current OC, Aria, is a little reserved...I'm having Sylvia be more outgoing.

This is going to be the most difficult thing in this story so far. Only because right now, her personality, if not tweaked properly, can turn into...a Sue. (Bom-bom-bommm!)

If she isn't liked, then she's gone. Remember, I'm writing this for you guys too, not just myself.

It may be a bit longer till my next update, MAYBE! I gotta get this new character together, it's just, originally, I didn't know how to get her in here, but the way I set things up with Riza, she was able to come in sooner than I originally anticipated. So here's hoping that all goes well. I'm starting her profile right now.


	29. Episode 29 Silver Lining

Alright. First, we start it out with a littel EdxWin and then we ease into Al's hunt for a mate.

I at least know you'll like the first half.

Also...I realize full well that I've turned Riza into a bubble head...and I'm ok with that. She's funnier this way. ;P

* * *

**_Episode 29 - Silver Lining_**

* * *

Their day off together went strikingly well. The most time Ed spent at home that day was to shower and change, the rest was spent with Winry. He even managed to avoid Al all that day as well, not intentionally; his folks said that he was at the mall with Riza since it opened.

His father beamed that they both had cute girlfriends. Sadly, Ed had to lie to his father and say that he and Winry weren't dating, and were just friends. This reply was met with a firm few pats on the back and a 'No harm to keep trying' statement. It was nice to see that his father had a little faith in him with regards to getting a girlfriend, so Ed didn't bother to expand on it.

He and Winry drove all over town, admiring the lovely drifts the snow left all over the place. Even the school, which is why it was canceled that day.

"Ho-shiz." Winry said in a comedic tone as she pointed to the school.

"Shiz? ...Yeah, that seems about the size of it." They had five plows going over the school to ensure the parking lots were dug out and the doors were visible. There were workers digging out the doors where the plows couldn't go. "Well, at least we know it was canceled with valid reason."

As the day passed, the evening was coming upon them quickly, and a trip to Tim Hortons was on the list of things to do. Winry ordered her usual Nanimo Bar and a large french vanilla cappuccino. Ed decided to go with the candy cane doughnut and a large double double. Conversation was light as they enjoyed their time together. "Want to head out now?" They were finished eating and all that was left were the drinks, which were warm and quite pleasing to take along in the cold of winter.

"Sure. I want to go and see the bridge." She gathered up the plates from her and Ed's food.

"Bridge?" He asked with confusion.

"Yeah. Come on, we'll have to drive, but I want to show you."

Winry directed him to the designated place. It was a little out of the way, down a dirt road and through a small bushel of trees to a clearing near a small bridge, arched, dark brown in color. "I love this place." She gave a twirl as she went over to the bridge. "The way the water flows, it makes a cage here." She pointed to the water. "See?"

Ed leaned over the bridge and examined the water. When it flowed out from beneath the bridge, the rocks beneath made the water jump and stick to the bridge in certain spots. After doing it so much, the icicles that formed became so long that they touched the river's surface, making a cage like structure.

"That is cool." He rested his elbows on the railing, his coffee resting next to him. "Yeah...how come no one else is here?" Ed didn't notice any footprints in the snow besides themselves. "Maybe it's just the time of year."

Winry shook her head. "No, it's just an unpopular spot. No one comes here." She thought about it for a moment. "Well, I've never seen anyone else here. I mean, it is in the middle of nowhere."

Ed shrugged. "Maybe at the edge of nowhere. We're not that far out." She kicked some snow into the water and watched it dissolve. "How did you find this place?" Ed looked to the shore, the blades of grass that stuck through the snow, few in number, dangled lightly in the water, coating them in a thin layer of ice.

"It's just a place I found when we first moved here. We actually use to own a house further out. This is the spot I came to."

"Ah. I guess this was just an old hang out spot with your friends. You're being nostalgic I take it." Ed shoved his bare hands in his pockets. The coffee had cooled off and was no longer acting as a small heater.

"Nope." Winry said with a hint of angst. "It's was just me...you're actually the first person I invited here." She smiled. "But we should go now. It's getting way too dark." It was true, the night fell around six o'clock during the colder months, and it was nearing six.

"Sure." Ed grabbed his cup and began to walk off the bridge. He removed the lid and threw the excess cold coffee into the snowand walked back to the van.

"I should dump mine too." Winry examined the coffee in the snow. She quickly went to the car and retrieved her drink, taking a sip, she cringed. "Yup, mine's cold too." She went over to where Ed dumped his and she also removed her lid, but, unlike Ed, she carefully poured it in the snow and smiled. "There....hmm." Brightening up, she smiled.

Ed peeked out the door to Winry. "What are you doing?" Ed was confused that she didn't just toss the cold liquid out the door.

She smiled even wider, if that was possible. "Come here." She shoved the lid in the cup and held it at her side.

"What is it?" Edward said as he looked at the snow. "Aww..." He looked at Winry and gave her a kiss that lasted only a few seconds. "That's really nice...let's get--wait." He whipped out his Sanyo phone and flipped it up. Taking a picture, he showed it to Winry. "I'm putting that as my background image."

Winry took out her Samsung phone and took a picture as well. "Not a bad idea." The two young teenagers took a picture of the snow, their free arm around one another. When they were finished, they kissed once again and then walked out of the small grove and hopped back into the vehicle.

* * *

The following day, having forgave his brother for staying at Winry's, he decided to move on to a more attainable goal. "Alright." Al peered over the crowd of people coming in the front doors in the morning. "Do you see her?"

Riza stood next to him, doing her best to see over some of the shorter people; but to no avail. "No." She kept on looking. "Wait!" She pointed over the slew of people. "That's her." She said, pointing to a girl, medium length blond hair, done in cornrows.

"Ooh, nice." Al lowered himself off his tippy toes. "Do you think I should talk to her now or wait till lunch."

Riza looked from side to side, examining the setting. "Nah. You should wait till we're not cooped up like this, could make for a really awkward conversation. What with the bumping into each other."

Alphonse nodded. "True."

* * *

"Al! Al-Al-Al." Riza rushed up to him. "Come here!" She said, dragging him from his seat, not giving him time to ask questions.

"My chocolate milk though." He reached back with his free hand towards his half empty milk bottle.

"Leave it. You have to see this." Riza said, pulling him clear out of the lunch room and into the gym. "Where did she go...there." She pointed off to Sylvia from across the gym. "She's hot!" She exclaimed under her breath.

"..." Al looked across the gym to the girl in question. She did have a pretty face, a nice body and lovely blond hair, but her cloths were questionable. "She's a freak? Riza, I said I liked girly-girls." Sylvia was wearing mostly black, something Al disliked.

Riza was taken aback. "Who cares what she's wearing. Look at her!" She said with a smirk. "I'm sure her skin's not the same color underneath, so who gives a damn if she's not in our clique, slash, fashion loop?"

"...and you're in a relationship?" He said in response to her swooning over the new girl.

"Hey. I'm allowed to look...besides, I'm sure Maria would say the same thing." She folded her arms.

"...you lesbians are weird." He shook his head.

* * *

"She's in my art class." Riza said in passing in the hall on the way to second last class. She got in close to Al's ear so no one else would hear. "But you might want to just give up, she's totally gay."

Al was let down severely. "Really?" He said as if he were a hurt puppy.

"Oh, Riza, you think everybody's gay." Winry said as she brushed by the crowd and stopped to talk to the two of them.

"She's is! She was totally hitting on me." She looked at Al and Winry staring a hole in her in disamusment. "...ok, she may not be lez, but she very well might like both..." She received the same look. "...what? It could happen."

"Eh." Al sighed.

"Why don't you just talk to her Al? I mean, the worst she can do is say no, or I'm taken, or, I'm gay." Winry warmed over the seemingly hopeless situation.

"Or she could get freaked out and run out of the building screaming." They looked at her again. "WHAT? It could happen!!" She defended herself.

* * *

"Uh...excuse me." Al said sheepishly. "I couldn't help notice that you're new here...and, I was wondering if you needed any help looking around the school?"

Sylvia turned around to face Al. She shook her head. "The girls on the badminton team already helped me. Sorry. But thanks. What's your name?" She said with a wide smile.

"Alphonse Hohenheim." Normally he didn't introduce in such a way, but he really wanted to try and impress this girl. Manners and such.

"Is that German?" She inquired.

"Uh, yeah. My family is originally from Munich." He smiled.

"Really?" She said excited. "Mine too, what were the chances? I'm Sylvia Ollenschläger. It's hard to pronounce, I know."

"Not at all." He smiled. "So. Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" He said in his parent's native language, his second.

"Sicher, spreche ich Deutsch." She said in return. Finally, ice being broken, the conversation continued.

* * *

"_Sooo_. How did it go?" Riza asked as Al was passing by in the hall on her way home.

Alphonse shrugged. "She's ok. But I don't think she's my type, she's friendly enough, but I don't think it's meant to be."

The blond girl was shocked. "After all that build-up, you're just going to call it quits?" She caught eyes with Winry, who in turn shrugged.

He nodded. "Yeah...I'll keep looking though. I'm sure I'll find someone for me." He remembered the conversation he had with Sylvia. "You never know." He turned and spoke to Riza while walking backward. "There's probably someone here, just waiting for me." Upon turning around, he bumped into someone. "Ugh."

"Sorry, Al." She said.

"Huh?" He looked down to see none other than Aria. "It's ok, it's too crowded in here. See ya'." He nodded as he walked past.

"Bye." Aria said, heading back into the school. She passed by Winry. "Hi Winry." She said nicely.

"Hey Aria." She replied as the red-head walked by.

"Eh...I was really hoping he would have taken to her." Riza slung her hands behind her head. "That was a let down, life goes on a guess...say, can I use your phone to call for a ride, I lost my quarter."

"Sure." She handed Riza the phone from her holster.

Flipping the phone up, she was about to dial, but was stopped short. "Aww, that's such a cute background. Where did you find it?" She flashed the picture of a heart made in the snow with coffee.

"I just saw it and thought it was cute, so I took a picture." She smiled.

* * *

There you have it. A subtle introduction, but I think it went over well. I'll expand on her a lot more, but I'm going to ease Sylvia in, just so people don't get uncomfortable with her.

What do you think so far though, modest enough?

Oh, and as to what Al said, he just asked her if she spoke German, she replied positivly.


	30. Episode 30 A New Friend

A little more Sylvia exposure. Not really tapping into her personality too much yet, but she's slowly coming to life in my mind. It's hard to explain, but I can't just make a character and stick them where I want. I need to feel their personality and then make them real and not one dimensional. Aria took me FOREVER to get her right.

For those of you who just met Aria, she made her first appearance in my fic "Part 1 - Promise". So I liked the idea of pulling her into the real world too.

* * *

**_Episode 30 - A New Friend_**

* * *

"Bloody wind." Sylvia said as she made her way into the school. She had just gotten the braids in her hair a week ago, and wasn't use to the crimpy, wavy braids blowing in her face. "Pff." She blew a strand off her lips.

She had left her new racket in her car, so she needed to run out into the snow and wind to go and get it. "Hey." A voice sounded from behind her.

Turning around, she came face to face with Riza. "Hi Riza, what's up?"

"Nothin'." She said sweetly. "I was going to badminton practice today too, so I figured we could be partners."

Nodding, she held her racket over her shoulder. "Sure."

The badminton team didn't have a league like the other sports teams due to lack of interest from other schools, but the 24 members played for fun in the gym during lunch on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; also after school on Fridays. Being Friday, Riza decided to go, she normally didn't have cheerleading on Fridays, so she attended badminton instead to kill time. And it was fun.

The girls played for the full two hours that were offered to them. Sylvia couldn't help but notice Riza's overly friendly comments during the practice, but she disregarded it as good sportsmanship.

Riza walked toward the door of the gym, her bag slung over her shoulder.

"So she's gay, huh?" Al said to her with sarcasm in his voice.

She gasped. "Huh? I didn't see you there Al." She was slightly nervous.

"_You_ were flirting with **her**. I can't believe it." Al swung his hands behind his head. "I'm not interested in her or anything, but you're in a relationship, you really shouldn't be looking at messing around." He reminisced to Clause's party months back. "It can lead to really bad things."

Riza sighed. "I know. But I can't help it, it's my nature to be friendly."

Al raised an eyebrow. "It's your nature to tell someone they have really smooth calves?"

Riza blushed. "..."

He shook his head. "Bah. Ready to go?" He hooked his thumb toward the door.

"Yeah." With that, the two of them headed out to the mall to meet with the rest of their friends, it had been a while since they all had gone out together, so they made a point to make plans for after Riza's practice. After a couple hours of mall crawling, the made their way to the food court.

"So he's decided to just give up on her." Riza complained to the rest of the group as they sat and ate.

Al rolled his eyes. "It's just not meant to be. Trust me, I have a feeling..." He hesitated on the rest of the sentence. He was going to mention that he had this strange urge to get a girlfriend, and had no idea as to why. He figured it was the season, spring was going to happen in a month, after February, in March. He rested his forehead on the table.

"Don't worry Al, you'll find someone...but maybe you shouldn't be so picky." Winry said in sympathy. "Maybe...Blond isn't that important?" She threw her idea out.

"Yeah." Riza followed up. "I mean, there was Katie. She's got dark brown hair, and she likes you. Why not her?" Riza mentioned another on of the girls on the team.

"She does have a nice rack." Breda followed up, Kain all the while sitting next to him, nodding in agreement.

Al skimmed his memory banks. "Well..."

"And, she puts out." Riza egged him on.

At that moment, he froze. "Actually...I...uh..." He struggled with words. The group looked on in anticipation. Alphonse looked from side to side. "I...I don't want someone with experience...if you catch my drift."

"You want a virgin?" Riza blurted out.

Al blushed a deep shade of red. "That's not what I said." He folded his arms. "I just don't want someone..." He struggled with his words.

"Who's not a virgin. There's no way around it, you said it, it's out there." Riza giggled. "Does that mean you still are one too?"

He nodded. "Yeah, like I'm going to give it up for just anyone. I want to find someone good."

"Aww, that's cute, he's all sentimental." Riza teased.

"Oh be quiet. You're still a virgin." Breda joked at her.

"No I'm not! Girls count too you ass!" She yelled and threw a few fries at him. The group laughed.

"Eh. Whatever. I think I'm just going to take off now." Al stood up. "You guys can deal with this as you want." He said, leaving an entire tray of food behind, untouched, except for the drink.

Riza then looked sad. "I'm sorry Al. I didn't mean to make you feel bad." She said, regret in her voice.

He shook his head. "Nah, don't worry. I can take a joke, it's just started snowing again, and I want to get home before it gets too bad." He checked his watch. "And the bus is coming in ten minutes."

"Alright. I'll keep an eye out for a girl for you too." Winry said as she waved. "And, Al, cheer up."

Smiling, he waved back. "Thanks. Later." That being said, he headed out the back of the mall. He searched from side to side, hoping that Russell was out back. Remembering that it was Friday, he sighed, his green haired friend wouldn't be doing what Al was hoping he was doing, so he proceeded to the bus stop. Upon reaching the sign, he noticed a posting on the terminal window. "The hell..." He read it allowed. "Due to inclement weather conditions, the bus may be anywhere to 10 to 15 minutes late. Uuuh!" Al arched his head up into the air as he groaned. Turning his back to the large snow bank lining the roads and flopped backward into it, causing his feet to stick out and his body to be engulfed in the frozen white fluff. "Fuck." He said in frustration while amidst the drift.

Only a few minutes passed and Al could hear footsteps approaching him. "Al? What are you doing?"

He could hear his brother, but he couldn't see him. "I'm being depressed in the snow? I thought that was obvious."

Ed shuffled around the snowbank though the path that was dug by city workers. "I suppose. Still on the unsuccessful hunt for a girl?"

Al looked up and finally saw his Edward's face. "Who told you that?"

He shrugged. "Eh, grapevine."

"You and your fucking grapevine." He complained.

Ed looked around to see if the bus was in sight then he came right back to his conversation with his brother. "I just saw your friends in the mall and asked where you were. Where's the bee at today?"

"Clause?" Al knew exactly who he was talking about. "Don't know, don't care."

"Oh well. They told me you were at the bus stop, yet here you are in the snow. What if the bus zips on by?"

Al's arm lifted from the hole he made in the newly fashioned pile of snow and pointed down the road. "I know what the bus sounds like. I'll just get up." He allowed his arm to flop back down in it's designated dent.

Ed looked down the road again. "I think...you should get up now."

"Why?" Al said, still submerged. "Is the bus coming." He listened hard for it, but couldn't.

"Actually, a plow is coming." Ed pointed.

Quickly shooting up to a sitting position, Al looked down the road. "How about that." Removing himself from the cold pile, he brushed off his clothing. "Fucking plow...think he'll give me a ride home?" He backed up onto the sidewalk with Ed.

"I doubt that. But that's why I'm here. Want a ride? I don't have a van full yet?" Ed held up his keys. "Even Sylvia's with us, we ran into her in the mall...you sure?" They had made a stop into Pets Unlimited for Aria to buy some rabbit food and saw Sylvia looking at the reptiles. Ed struck up a conversation with her and they found out she meshed with the group quite well. "Besides, it's starting to come down pretty quick." Ed held out his hand and caught a few large clumped snowflakes in his hand.

"...regardless of what you heard, I'm not interested in dating her; if that's what you're getting at." Al continued removing the snow from his jacket.

"I...didn't say that, but no matter. Come on. You'll catch a cold." He tugged at his brother's sleeve.

"Bah. Fine." Al shuffled through the snow with Ed.

They walked toward the van, side by side, and were reunited with the rest of the group, plus one extra, Sylvia. She had on her black trenchcoat, same as Leo and Russell, not the same brand, but similar.

"Here, Al." Aria said, stepping out of the front seat.

"You don't have to move." Al said, watching her slide the back door open.

She shook her head. "Sit up front. I like it better down back, it's too warm up there."

"I told you, it's so the window's don't fog up." Ed defended the heat up front in a smug, joking manner.

Al sat in the seat while Aria slinked into the back, next to Sylvia. He looked into the rearview mirror and caught a good glimpse of Aria's behind as she maneuvered into the back. Shockingly enough, he gawked, remembering what Breda had mentioned to him a couple months back. '_She does have a nice little bod..._' He kept that thought to himself.

"Al?" Edward accosted him.

"What?"

"What?"

"Seriously, what?" Al said in frustration.

"Nothing. Just get your seat belt on." Ed said cheerfully as he started up the van as Al applied his restraint. He loved to get under Al's skin from time to time.

Ed allowed the vehicle to run for a few minutes when Al felt the fiery blast of the van's heater. "Holy shit, Ed, are you on morphine or something?" He turned the heater down to half. "There, the windows won't fog up and I get to keep the first layer of skin on my face."

He snickered. "Wuss, it wasn't that hot."

Al snipped back. "And it's not that cold out, wuss."

"Children." Leo scolded them.

"Shut your face." Al laughed slightly as he folded his arms in defeat and stared out the window.

They began to pull out of the mall parking lot when a conversation began. "You know." Sylvia got them started out. "You two look a lot alike, are you related?" She directed her question to Ed and Al. "I mean, when you two were walking to the van, you were completely in sync."

Ed laughed. "We're brothers."

"I figured something like that." She said in revelation. "Who's older?"

"Not sure." Ed said.

"How are you not sure?" She was confused.

"We were a c-section." Al added.

She was surprised. "So you're twins?"

"Identical twins." Al clarified.

Sylvia did her best to look for similarities. "...um." The rest of the group snickered a bit.

Ed made a wide left turn as he responded. "Al dyes his hair and keeps it short and I wear yellow contacts to make my eyes green. We were sick of people getting us confused, so this was our solution." He smiled into the rearview mirror.

"Oooh. Neat."

"Honestly, it's really convenient." Russell mentioned. "Kind of sucks though, you won't be able to take each other's tests if you're bad at the subject."

"Yeah, that does suck." A few moments of silence passed. "So, off topic here, I guess there's not a whole lot to do around town in the winter." Sylvia said, leaning forward in her seat.

"Not really. Unless you like mall crawling and Tim's." Leo said.

"Which is why we kept the tradition for years, of game night." Russell said, rubbing his hands together.

"Game night?" She questioned.

"It's where we go to my place and play games and chat all night." Aria chimed in. "Can you come tonight?"

"I'll have to call mom, but I'd love to." Sylvia nodded.

"Also, my mom's cool with having guys over, but they have to stay in the basement. Which is fully carpeted and furnished, of course."

"With new furniture no less." Paninya followed up. "Her mom's rich, so she can afford to buy two furniture sets a year."

Aria laughed. "I'm not rich, Jean just likes to help out a lot."

"Mr. Money bags." She smiled. "He's a good guy and I'm glad you mum's settling down with him."

"Is your mom getting married?" Sylvia asked.

"Yeah. She hasn't set a date yet, but they're aiming for spring." Aria cracked her knuckles. "It'll be the first time I've gone into a church since...oh, I don't know. When was I baptized? Two-three months old."

They laughed. "How come so long?" The new girl asked.

Aria shrugged. "Mom was never a big church goer when I was a kid, so I never really went. And there's also a couple other reasons, but the biggest one is the one why I decided to become vegetarian. You ever hear about the crusades? That's the reason I changed faiths and also became so sensitive toward living things. Just creeps me out to think I'm ingesting something that was alive and had a family." She shivered. "Eugh. But I'm no Nazi when it comes to my eating habits. I won't push them on anyone." She froze in her tracks, realizing what she just said. "Oops, I didn't mean it like that."

Ed laughed. "It's ok, no offense taken."

"Me either." Sylvia shook her head. "I thought it was funny."

"Al?" Aria questioned.

"Huh? What?" He was staring off in a daze out the window at the passing scenery.

"...never mind." She smiled. "The second is I found it to restricting. It was all rules and guidelines. I just found it wasn't a freeing as I'd hoped, so, when I reached the age of reason, I converted. Mom still doesn't know, she just thinks this star is pretty." She flashed her pentacle made of a shiny metal and a blue gem at each point of the star.

"That is pretty." She examined it. "How much did that cost?"

"It wasn't really expensive, $25 is all I paid. I don't think it's any sort of precious metal...maybe silver plated, but that's it." She held it out to Sylvia.

"Still, it's really nice." She admired it.

"So, are we heading to your place now?" Ed asked from the front.

Aria placed her necklace back in her jacket. "Sure."

"Cool." Ed made the turn to go to his home first. "I'll drop Al off and then we'll go."

"If you want to Al, you can come too." Aria mentioned.

Al blushed. "Oh, no thanks, I don't want to bother you guys." He lied.

Edward looked at him from the corner of his eye, noticing the meek look on his siblings face, he smirked. "You wouldn't be, come on. We never hang out and we live in the same house. Except for that one time." He reminisced to the time Al was wrecked, watching TV in his room when they had game night at hi place that once.

"...I guess...but I don't think I'll spend the night." He said, still, cheeks kind of pink.

"Cool. I'm sure you'll have fun." Aria said with a smile.

"Thanks." He said.

Ed glanced at him again and spoke in a low tone so only Al could hear. "Why ya' blushin'?" He teased.

Al turned a deeper shade. "My face is cold." He said, turning the heat back up and then covered his face from the noes down with his hands and exhaled deeply.

* * *

Ooh, the nervousness! Why would Al be all nervous? Hehehe.  
Sorry for the long wait. I have personal issues that are being dealt with, and I haven't had a chance to write much.

But, I hope you guys liked it. :)


	31. Episode 31 Darkness

Now...this is a touchy subject...I'm doing my best to be careful with it. So please, if you have any problem/s, please, tell me and I'll correct it.

Just as the title says, it's going to be a little dark from here on out for the next short while.

* * *

**_Episode 31 - Darkness_**

* * *

"I can't fucking take it, uh!!" Clause took her pill bottle and threw it against her wall, it didn't shatter, but it was lost in the vanity beneath it. She held her head in her hands and sobbed. The pills for her illness were causing side effects that were undesirable, and she couldn't stand it any longer. She rubbed her forehead and felt a series of bumps, tiny bumps. The pills had caused an acne break out and it was spreading to her face, back and chest. Taking her hands, she dried her eyes. "No more."

Pacing the entire length of her room, she thought of any way she could avoid taking them. Clause didn't even taking into the fact those pills were the only reason Al was even speaking to her. 'I'll have to lie about most of it, but I could replace them with fake pills.' She thought hard. Remembering she mistook a 'no name' pain killer for her pill that past summer, she searched her vanity. "Yes!" She said to herself in a whispered hush so to make sure her mother didn't hear her. "Mmm." She poked a button on her stereo and turned her radio on low and opened the bottle of pain killers.

She made some room in the middle of her pile of makeup and other knickknacks and picked up the actual prescription and poured it out on the cleaned off spot on her baby yellow vanity. She pored the pills out and began counting. "21, 22, 23..." Counting twenty-three of them, she opened the pain killers and dumped them into her hand. She picked up the empty prescription bottle and began feeding twenty-three of the similar white pills into it. "Done and done." Clause replaced the cap and scraped the actual prescription into her hand and tossed them into an old empty lipstick container, closed it and tossed it into her drawer in the back.

The remaining pain killers went back in their spot in the front of the drawer. It was times like that in which Clause was glad she bought club pack sized things, pills being one of them. There were two-hundred pills from the start, several less since she used them for cramps each month last year, but still enough to replace her prescription in the coming months.

Izumi was very careful when Clause would take her pills, so it was vital that there was something in their place, because there was no 'taking her word for it' any more. She had tried that before.

She looked in the mirror to see tears making lines down her face. "Why am I still crying?" She wiped them away and left her room for the bathroom to rinse her cheeks.

* * *

Once again, their little town was bombarded with snow, and it was showing no sign of stopping. The wood stove in Aria's basement crackled away as they enjoyed one of the many final fantasy games.

Sylvia decided to strike up conversation while the group had some down time in the midst of Edward looking for a particular enemy. "I hate to ask but, how are you guys with your 'edge'? Are we straight edge here or what?" She said, her legs pulled up onto the armchair at the short end of the coffee table.

"Huh, well I don't smoke or drink." Aria said. "I know Leo doesn't either." She spoke on his behalf. "Ed?" She inquired as she watched him slay some phoenix like monster in the game he was playing.

"No, don't smoke or drink either."

"You did once." Al corrected him.

"Really now?" Russ was intrigued.

Edward huffed and shook his head. "Last summer we went over to Munich to visit family and I had a couple beer. There's no age restriction on beer in Germany."

"No shit?" Paninya was surprised.

"Yup." Al followed up, giving a large stretch and leaning against the arm of the coach, his feet on the cushion next to the one Paninya was sitting on. "The only thing there's an age restriction on is hard liquor, you need to be eighteen to buy it. But who cares, beer is great."

"You drink?" Sylvia asked Al.

"Not really. I did a few times here and when we visited Germany last year, but I don't make a habit out of it...and I tried pot a few times."

"Me too. Just a few times." Russell said, causing everyone turn around; it even made Ed pause his game and turn around. "...a few times a week! HA!" He laughed aloud, causing everyone to revert back to what they were doing. "I almost had you guys going."

"You did." Leo stated. "The thing that gets me is it doesn't affect you in school. It doesn't make scene. Most everyone I know who does it is a moron, but you're are on the gold honor role, you get better marks than most of us."

Russ cracked his knuckles and rested his arms behind his head. "I am just that awesome."

"And modest." Aria swiftly threw her bit in there.

"Yes. I am, aren't I. In fact, I think I'm the most modest person in this room." He joked.

Sylvia laughed a little. "I got high once, but it was only a contact high. My old friends back home had it in the car and I got hot boxed. It was pretty fun. I don't really drink though, maybe a sip here and there, I just don't want to lose my mom."

Again Ed paused his game due to confusion. "Lose your mom?"

She nodded. "I'm actually a foster kid. I was taken in last month by a really awesome person, and without a hitch, I started calling her mom. If I'm caught drinking or using drugs, she could get in a lot of trouble and I might get moved to another home."

"Oh, you'd never think it." Aria looked at her. "I've known a few foster kids and most of them were all forlorn and misbehaved. You seem really nice though."

Sylvia nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty tough getting bumped from home to home, there's a lot of sketchy people in this world. I guess I just learned from the mistakes I saw them make."

"It's good to see you've found a good home now though." Leo said. "Structure is a good thing."

Alphonse thought for a moment. "Come to think of it, one of the girls on the Cheerleading team is a foster child too. I don't know who though; I just heard them talking." He tried to recall. "Eh, I got nothin'."

"I FOUND IT!" Ed bellowed as a large white bird appeared on the television screen. "The Trickster."

"You know, I tried for a week and couldn't find it...and now I see I was just in the wrong spot." Aria hung her head down. "Stupid Chocobo. But he's so cute and fluffy." Aria swooned, hands clasped together.

"And he's huge." Paninya commented. "Does anyone remember the chocobo system in FF7?" This question was met with a nod. "Did anyone else find it was gross that you could inbreed them to get the gold chocobo?"

Aria laughed. "You know what? I went out of my way to have two separate families in the barn so I could avoid inbreeding."

Sylvia in turn laughed as well. "I did the exact same thing!"

"I didn't." Russ snickered. "I'm surprised mine weren't born with some strange mental retardation."

"It's because code doesn't have DNA, and DNA is the stuff that makes us what we are." Leo tossed out a little logic.

"True...but it would be a challenge to have a program written like that." Paninya mentioned. She was big on computers and coding. "Now I have to make it a mission to try and write a code like that someday."

"You're into code?" Sylvia asked, changing the position of her crossed legs because one was falling asleep.

"Yeah." She said with a wide smile. "I want to do Website design as a profession. It's easy and I don't have to deal with stupid people. At least not that often."

"My dad does it right from home, because it's hard for him to get around." Russell chimed in. "So yeah, that would be the perfect job for you, ya' misanthrope."

Bunny stuck out her tongue. "It's not my fault people suck."

* * *

Clause tore through her closet for something to wear. She was back in her right state of mind, as proclaimed by her, and was itching to go out and have some fun. It was Friday night, shortly past ten, so her parents were in bed and she was planning on sneaking out.

Opening her door, she turned the knob and closed it again, just to avoid that click at the end. She slowly turned around only to come face to face with her older sister. "Clause? What are you doing?" The taller, brown haired girl said with bite in her voice. Normally she was very docile and kind to her younger sibling, but she was becoming weary of her little sister's ways as of late.

"I'm going to a friends house for a little while. I'll be back before one." She clasped her hands together. "Don't tell mom or dad Sheska."

She peered down the hall to her other little sisters room. "Every time you do this, you drink. It's not good for someone your age, I don't think you should. I mean, it's bad enough you made me promise not to tell mom about the party."

Clause pointed a finger at her. "Hey, I let you invite your friends too. So you're just as much to blame."

She shoved her hands into her plaid pyjamas pockets. "Hmm...If you're bored and can't sleep, why not come play video games with me instead...I have Katamari." She did her best to try and change her mind, knowing full well that the last time they played that game, they had a lot of fun.

Clause immediately shook her head. "No. I'd rather have a life." She walked right past her. "I'll be sure not to wake the baby." Clause waived over her shoulder.

"Whatever." She turned and went back to her room.

* * *

Managing to slip the bouncer at the door a twenty at the door, he let her go in to meet up with her collage friends. Her sister's boyfriend, Vato, being one of them. "Hey guy! What's up?" She waved at him.

"Not a whole lot. What brings you here?" He talked loudly to make his voice sound over the booming music.

"Bored! Wanna buy me a drink?" She spoke loudly in return.

"Sure, what are you having?" He asked with a smile. He really liked Clause, he thought she was a really fun girl to party with, and knowing she didn't have a cash flow of her own, like he did, he didn't mind spotting her for drinks.

"Purple Haze-" She held up two fingers. "-a double."

"Comin' up." He waved through the crowd of people up to the bar.

The night was fun for Clause, she drank and danced right to her hearts content. Vato was infamous for his special 'dealings', so he was knee high in cash. From what she knew, the only thing that he sold that he touched was the marijuana, but nothing else, his sister was the same. Hard drugs were a big 'no' for her as well.

As the hours zipped on by, she found herself on one of the coaches that adorn the main hall of the club. "I think I should go home now." The underage girl said with a thick slur in her voice. It was then that she realized that she had overdone it.

"Sure, I'll take you home." A male voice said to her.

Trying her best to see who it was, she squinted. "What? Uh, sure." She said holding her hand out to get some help off the bar couch.

The rest was a blur, the shaky walk down the stairs, the trek though some snow, then, unknowingly, a feeling of cold. She assumed, with what little consciousness she had left, that she fell. But then, there was a rough feeling, and she wasn't getting up. The cold continued, and so did the discomfort. "What's goin' on? Vato? Are you there? What are you doing? Whas...wat...uh." She tried to push whom ever it was who was helping her walk away, because they didn't seem to be helping anymore, but there was no success. She felt her back be lifted off the snow and smash into a hard surface, the texture was similar to brick.

"Shut up!" The strange voice sounded like it was yelling down a long tunnel and was fading fast.

"Wha...I...." She felt it, her mind was fading fast, and she had this strange figure around her, causing her pain. Slowly, she shut her eyes and drifted off to solid black.

* * *

Like I said. Kind of touchy. But I think I danced around the idea enough.

This is going to be a tough arc, but we'll get through it.


	32. Episode 32 Change

Okay, so no one was offended? Good, then I get to keep rolling with this for a while.

I always see rape delt with in an unrealistic manner, so I wanted to put a little reality back in it and make people realized the severity of it.

Here you have it, a continuation. (By the way, I couldn't proofread this one, my supervisor caught me and is now watching me like a hawk. DX I swear she's a fucking ninja! I didn't even see her coming!!!)

* * *

**_Episode 32 - Change_**

* * *

The adreanaline sobering her up somewhat, Clause managed to wedge herself into a nook on the side street the bar was located at. Finally, she was out of the direct snowfall, but still, confused as to what had just happened to her. She had a feeling she knew what happened, but was hoping it was just a dream.

Looking at her phone, she could see that the screen was water damaged and she couldn't tell what time it was. "Dammit." She was freezing, the snow laid out on her black hair kind of resembled a mesh, covering it all. Her bare legs felt as though they were being stuck with several thousand pins. As far as she could tell, she had fingers, only because she could see them beneath the dim porch light in the closed off section she menuvered into.

Moving the digits on her hands as best she could, she dialed the number of the only person she felt she could trust with this. "Please work." She sobbed. No tears fell.

'_Hello?_' A very groggy voice sounded over the speaker.

"Winry...can you come and get me...please." She did her best not to cry into Winry's ear, but wasn't very sucessful.

'_What?_' The sound of Winry's voice became more alert. '_Where are you?_'

Clause could hear the sound of rusteling, she assumed Winry was just getting out of bed. "I'm by the RBC.*" She looked across the street to the blue sign of the bank. "I'm on the stairs in between two buildings, but I can see the bank across the street from where I'm at."

'_Are you alone?_' Again, the sound of movement.

"I am now...I don't know what he did to me Winry...please, hurry."

'_I'll be there as soon as I can._'

"Thank you." Clause hit the end button.

* * *

Winry hung up her phone and continued getting dressed. She had done this before, but to have her say what she did, she wasn't planning to take her home, but rather right to the hospital, if this wasn't just another ploy of hers.

Winry had her liscence, but still wasn't allowed to drive after midnight, and it was two in the morning. Not caring, she grabbed the key copy that was given to her by her parents and stealthly snuck downstairs and out the front door. It seemed that the storm that was going on earlier in the evening subsided and they were just left with unforgiving bitter cold air.

Making her way downtown, she headed right for the bank that Clause had mentioned. Knowing full well where it was, because it was the only RBC in the area, she slowed her driving down and looked around for her distraught friend. Figuring that Clause was over exadurading again, she was use to the drill. Clause would drink, drink to much and she would be left holding the bag and was the one responible for taking her home.

Wriny pulled over and stepped out of her vehical and looked around. Another posibility was that she got in an argunment with someone there and was taking her usual hissy fit outside. The Capri was a sketchy place in her eyes to begin with, and she hated the fact that Clause managed to get in every time. Looking for her across from the bank, she saw someone curled up in the corner, covered in snow.  
"Clause..." Winry could see that she wasn't kidding. Taking a sprint, Winry rushed to her friend's side. "What happened?" She said, brushing some of the snow away from her hair. Touching her leg briefly to see that it too was ice cold. "You're freezing! How long have you been out here?" Winry tried to help her to her feet.

"I don't know. Some guy took me out here. I didn't even see his face. I blacked out Winry, I don't know what happened." She began to cry uncontrolably. "I don't---I..."

"Shh-shh. Don't worry, we'll get you right to the hospital." Winry was taller than Clause, and was both a base and a top, so her arms were incredibly strong. Reaching around her shoulder and then the back of her knee, she picked Clause right up off her feet and made her way back through the snow and to her car. Opening the door, she helped her sit on the back seat. "Here, bundle up, we're going to go to the emergency room."

"Winry...you can't tell mom. She'll be so mad." Clause said, tears making random strands of hair stick to her face.

Not being able to say so either way, she nodded. "I'll do what I can for you."

After making their way to the regional hospital, she got Clause signed in with the triage nurse and they took her right away. Winry herself waited in the lobby for anything that might be wrong. If what Clause was saying was true, they may be looking at a potential of it being rape. Winry tried her best to push that idea from her head, but all scenarios pointed to it.

The young blond girl reminised about her brush with something scary like this, and didn't want to wish it on anyone else. Her case wasn't anything scarring, but it was something to learn from.

Winry was still quite tired from the days events, so she found a visiting room and laid on her side on the couch and dozed off.

It only felt as though only a few minutes passed, but in actuality, it was an entire hour when she felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder waking her up. "Excuese me, are you Winry?" A female voice sounded.

She stirred awake. "Oh, yes."

"The doctor want's to speak with you."

Winry could feel herself on the verge of crying. She knew for a fact that Claus had done some pretty terrible things in her time to other people, but nothing that would warrant this happening to her. At best, she deserved a good smack, but never this.

"Hello Winry." The doctor's voice alone was enough to make her want to cry. "Clause has given me premission to speak with you."

Winry nodded and mouthed the word 'Okay', her voice was stuck in her throat.

"We did an examination, and from the looks of it, we are dealing with rape." He said with a lowered tone. "However, on a better note, from the examination, we found no seman, he wore a condom, and it was utilized properly. So, we can at the very least be thinkful that she hasn't contracted anything. At least, nothing that we can test for so soon."

Holding back the tears, she nodded. "How do you know if she was...for sure."

Though the question was vague, the doctor understood. "Ther's a little trauma, some bruising, nothing major, but it's still there. Do you know if she would want to press charges? We can iniate the paperwork here and include any findings we have."

Winry thought for a moment. "Maybe...I mean, the security camera's would probably show who it was. I'll have to talk to her...it's just...she doesn't want her mother to know."

He nodded while fixing his stethascope hanging around his neck. "Understandable. Things like this are difficult on girls her age. We have a thearapy group if she wants to come during school hours, we can write the school a note excusing her. Her parents don't need to know a thing."

"Really?" She was surprised they had such a thing. "I'll mention that to her too...can I talk to her soon?"

He took a step back from the examination room and held out his hand as if to say 'go ahead'. "She's still not feeling well, probably from the alcohol. But you can talk to her if you would like."

"Thank you."

"If you need anything, I'll be down the hall, but I will be coming back in a short while, I just have another patient to tend to. Clause has a little frostbite on her limbs, so she needs to be treated for that."

"Right." She turned and entered the room to see Clause, alone, staring out the window at the lightly falling snow, it had started again in the early hours of the morning, but just a light fluff falling. "Hey Clause..." She didn't know what else she could say.

"Why did this happen?" She said, distant, gazing off into nothingness of the snow speckled sky.

Shaking her head, Winry did her best to be strong for her friend. "I really don't know...but maybe it would be a good idea not to go to the bar till you're old enough. Guys are so much bigger than us right now, it's hard to defend ourselves properly."

"Sure...but...I tried so hard to make my life better. I started taking my pills again, I made amends with Al, I only snuck out once, tonight...but still, I get this. Am I really that bad? Was this the last straw?" She said, still not making eye contact, but now, showing the emotion of sadness. Tears fell from her eyes at a fast pace.

"No, not at all." Winry answered honestly. "Who ever it was who did this, it's them who's at fault, not you. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The doctor wanted to know if you were pressing charges. They said they can included their findings in the police report right here if you want to open a case. We can't change what happened, but we can at least get the fucker who did this."

She shook her head. "...I really don't care...I just want to forget about it."

"Clause...what if he does this to someone else?" She reasoned. "...If you don't want to, we can't force you. But please, consider it." She didn't even bother mentioning the thearpy sessions.

"Just take me home so I can sleep this off." She sat up in the bed. "I don't want anyone to know." She glared out the corner of her eye. "Even that dork you get tutoring from."

"Edward? No, I won't tell him." As much as she didn't want to keep it a secret form him, she knew it would be for the best. Not that she couldn't trust him, Winry herself just didn't want to talk about it.

"Good..." She made eye contact with Winry for the first time since she walked in the room. "Just so you know, I'm giving up on the good girl routine. I'm so sick of pills and trying to be the perfect little girl everyone wants me to be."

"Clause, don't be so harsh. I'll help you wi--"

"Shut up!" She yelled, cutting Winry off. "I don't care. You can kick me off the team if you want. But I'm giving you fair warning, the nice girl you knew, is gone." She rose to her feet, tetering a bit from the dehydration.

"The doctor said he was coming back. You have frostbite." She brought some reason to the conversation.

"Fine. But I'm going to smoke in the bathroom. I'm too stressed." She pulled the cigarette package form her purse on the night stand next to the bed.

"Okay...hurry. He'll be back." Winry watched her friend walk out of the room and off to the bathoom down the hall. As soon as she was sure she was out of ear shot, Winry broke down and sobbed for her friend's misfortune, making sure she could get in under control for when she came back.

* * *

Winry took her home and she immedeatly went to her room, silently. Being back in her warm bed was one of the only things that still felt the same. Walking hurt, breating hurt, thinking hurt, but the sheets and the soft comforter felt the same. Taking solice that it was something that didn't change, Clause closed her eyes and finally got some sleep, a dreamless sleep.

* * *

This is only the beginning. It get's worse. I really wanted to bring a bit of a dark edge to the story, because it's been pretty happy-go-lucky for the first while, so I think this will be a different stroke for me.

Now, I know I write based on expirence, but this isn't one of those instances. Just so we're clear. -_-' So I want to appoligize if at any point I'm insensitive towards the topic. But just so you guys know, I'm tip-toeing with it due to the sensitivity surrounding it.


	33. Episode 33 Reflections

Now, this one's kind of long, it's the recap episode that I think people need.

JUST SO YOU ALL KNOW!!!!  
You don't have to read the **bold-**_italic _stuff, that's just incase you forget exactally what went down. I think even I needed this, just to keep myself updated on what took place, cause, let's face it, this fic is kind of long.

Anyway, here you guys go, and sorry for the long wait. I'm taking a LOA from work. DX What can I say, I'm stressed. X.X

**_

* * *

_**

**_Episode 33 - Reflections_**

**_

* * *

_**

Clause's new outlook on life didn't go unnoticed by Aria and the rest of the group. "She was doing so well too." The red head leaned against the wall of the bacement and slid to the floor in the crossed legged sitting position. "What happened?"

Edward shook his head. "Who knows, maybe she stopped taking her meds...or she's developed and immunity to them."

"The world will never be a sound place again." Leo folded his arms together. "...come to think of it...a lot of stuff has gone on this school year, and we're only halfway done."

----------------

In the beginning of the school year, Ed and Al moved not only to a new town, but they also endured a going to a new school and the grueling task of meeting new people.

**_Episode 1_**

**_His mother and father both preformed on stage, in operatic theater, so they moved where the jobs took them. This new city they moved to was nothing extravagant, but quite rich when it came to live theater. Hence the reason for the move._**

Not even a month into the year, and the drama had begun. First it started out with a kidnapping, rather a bunny-napping, with Alphonse being chased by a neighbourhood dog, jumping a fence and landing in Aria's yard, damaging the leg of her pet rabbit, Nilla, on impact. He took the bunny in hopes to get it to a vet, but neglected to tell anyone.

-----------------------

**_Episode 11_**

**_The critter stood on it's hind legs, front paws pulled tightly together and it's eyes wide, a glassy stare that seemed to be looking straight at her, adorn it's face. She took a few more steps toward the bathroom and that glassy stare, along with the bunny's head, followed her. "The hell?" She went toward the supposed stuffed rabbit and it buckled, on the verge of running away at a moment's notice. "Edward!!!" Winry yelled downstairs._**

**_"Dammit." She could hear him mutter. "Is the sink not turning off agian? They said they fixed that."_**

**_"Nope!" Winry replied. "This is weird." The light brown fur, the white tipped ears; this was definitley Aria's pet._**

**_"The hell?" He said upon reaching the top of the stairs. Ed gawked at the animal in disbelief._**

**_"That's what I said." She looked back. "You had the bunny all along?" She snapped at him._**

**_"I was gone with the group all weekend, it couldn't have been me." He defended his rightfully owned innocence._**

**_"Would you keep it down..." Al pushed his semi open door fully open only to come face ot face with Winry. "Uh..." He was still half asleep and slightly confused. "Am I still asleep?" He checked over his own shoulder to see if he was still in his bed._**

**_"Alphonse! You took the rabbit?!" Winry clenched her fist._**

**_Al's face immedatly snapped out of it's sleepy expression to that of shock. "Wha--no...I---How did a rabbit get in the house?" He feigned igornance._**

--------------------

Clause also played a role in the abduction. Not directly so, but she had kicked up dirt with regards to the fate of the animal, making Aria look like she had tortured and killed her own pet.

**_Episode 11_**

**_Finally coming up to her locker, she looked on in horror. "What the hell?" He locker had been covered with papers that said things like 'savage' 'psyco' ' crazy girl' 'get out!'. She quickly began tearing the papers from the metal door. "Why can't people just leave me alone?! I didn't do anything!" She slammed her fists on the locker. It was apparent to her that someone did spread the rumour about the rabbit and used her name._**  
-------------

Fortunatly, only a few days passed and the rabbit was safely returned to Aria, by Al's hand, and the misunderstanding was cleared up.

**_Episode 11_**

**_She planted her fists on her hips. "An why did you take Nilla away from me?"_**

**_"Well..." He reluctantly looked at the bunny and then began handing her over to Aria. "When I landed..." A small cast then came into view on Nilla's right hind leg. "...I landed on her. I took her to the vet on Sunday and got the leg fixed up; then, when her leg was better, I was going to drop her off in your yard and no on would know the difference...but I got busted." He rubbed the back of his head in an awkward manner. "Really sorry about the confusion." He pet the rabbit in Aria's arms one last time. "Truth be told, I didn't even know it was your rabbit until yesterday."_**

---------------------

After that, was Clause's house party, which went off, needless to say, with an exorbant amount nonsence. Al managed to incapacitate himself with marijuana and Ed was left ot pick him up and get him out of the party and back home.

**_Episode_ 12**

_**Paninya rolled her eyes. "I doubt he is. Hmm?" The sound of the front door opening broke the teen's conversation.**_

_**"-and a stupid, miserable, dumb fuck. I'll never cover your ass again." Ed's voice resonated from downstairs.**_

_**"I do believe they're home." Russell looked out the bedroom door and saw Ed reach the top of the stairs with Al on his back. Ed let him down.**_

_**"Don't drown in the sink, brush your teeth and then get the fuck to bed." Ed briskly shut the bathroom door, sealing Al inside. "I have to go and get mom and dad in an hour, so make sure you're asleep." He left the bathroom door alone and headed back into his own room. Leaning against the door frame, he took a deep breath and looked up to the ceiling. "He puked in the back seat. And now mom and dad are going to know I was covering for him." He put his head forward a little and then let it bump against the door frame. "Scheiße." (Shit)**_

-------------

The Monday was met with even more hardship with Alphonse. Clause had gone out of her way to indulge the school in a lie about her and a certain blond student in which she had fooled around with over the weekend. She had everyone convinced that she and Al were not only dating, but they were planning on spending their lives together, and even that she was pregnent.

**_Episode 14_**

**_"So is it true? Are you and Clause getting married?" Riza questioned Al from behind him in English class._**

**_"What?!" He blurted out loudly causing the entire class to turn around. "Sorry-sorry." He lowered the volume of his voice. "What? We're not even dating...who told you that?"_**

**_She shrugged. "No one really, the girls were talking about it at the cheer meet on Sunday."_**

**_Al huffed. "No, we're not getting married, not even close." He turned around and went back to his work._**

**_

* * *

_**

**_"Hey Al, congrats!" Another boy from the team came up to him and gave him a firm pat on the back._**

**_"Someone help me." He muttered to himself._**

**_"I didn't ask before, but, when's she due?" The boy inquired._**

**_"Due?" Al looked horrified. It would seem that even eating his lunch in peace was out of the question today._**

**_"Yeah, due...the baby. You two are having a kid, right?" The boy seemed confused at Al's lack of an answer._**

**_"Thats it!' He slammed his fists down on the table and stood straight up. "Where is she?!"_**

-------------------------

Not taking kindly to this turn of events, Al demanded that Clause keep her mouth shut and that he didn't want anything to do with her, ever. Not taking kindly to that, she retorted with yet another lie, she injured herself and told everyone that Al had assulted her; she even brought him to court.

**_Episode 14_**

**_"Shut up! You had no right saying those things about me! Sure we hooked up at your party briefly, but that wasn't anything serious, I told you that before we even went upstairs. Mabye somewhere down the road, there might have been something, but now I know for sure that there won't." Al fibbed a little, but it got his point across. He wanted Winry, there was no maybe."You giving me head does NOT constitute us dating. Espically when I state prior to the act, that it means nothing." He paused briefly after sounding a whole lot like Ed. "Regardless, as of right now, I consider you an apuantince, you're not even a friedn anymore." With that said, before Clause could get one tear out, she exited the stair well, slaming the heavy door behind him._**

**_Clause stood there, devastated. She really had a crush on him and hearing him say that tore right into her. She began bawling. "This isn't what I wanted to happen!!" She screamed and had it echo in the seemingly empty stairwell. In a fit of rage and tears, she took a step to go downstairs to the bacement to calm herself down, but missed the step and tumbled down the 20 hard concreat stairs to the laning below._**

**_She laid on the floor, stunned momentairly, from the shock of the fall. She brought a hand to her lip, the tast of blood was in her mouth. Looking at her fingers, she saw that she had smashed her lip on the way down. "How can I make this better." She rubbed the red on her fingers together. "...or...how can I make it go away." She smiled deviously. "I'll ruin you Al!" She quickly reached and tore the side of her shirt and then reached down and removed one of her shoes. "I'll make you regret ever crossing me!" She smiled deviously._**

----------------------

This was when Russell's tech savy came into play. He rigged up a cord that would display Aria's cell on TV, showig the video of Clause throwing herself down the stairs. He rparents immedately said she would be put on her medication again. From that point on, things were quiet with Clause.

**_Episode 16_**

**_Aria removed the cord from around Russell's neck and headed up the front of the room. "Your honor, may I have the use of a television with AV ports?" She held up the white and yellow cords._**

**_The judge glanced off to the bodyguard standing on his left side. "Get the TV from the lounge." A minute passed slowly. "Is this in Claus's defense? Or in Alphonse's?"_**

**_Aria smiled at Clause. "It's for Al."_**

**_He solomly nodded and leaned back. "This should be intresting." The guard re-entered the room with the TV and stand with a squeaky wheel._**

**_Aria flicked the television on, plugged the cabled into the front with their corrsponding colors. She pushed a few buttons on her phone and then plugged the cord into her cell. The image on her phone showed up on the screen. "I was in the stairwell at lunch on Monday, trying to see if I could get a signal, when I heard someone enter the stairwell with me." She pushed the play button. "This is what transpired." She stood out of the way of the TV and allowed the rest of the court room to see._**

-------------------

But that wasn't the only bit of Drama that was caused by Clause's party, Winry too was effected and enevitibly, Edward as well. A collage student, Roy, had becom infatuated with WInry and wanted her to himself. So, he accosed Ed and demanded he keep his distance, this was followed up by a swift fist to the gut.

**_Episode 19_**

**_"That's really nice of you, and yes, she is nice...you know what would be great. If I could date Winry. Don't you think that'd be great Ed?" He was a very strang youth, talking as if he had known Ed for years._**

**_"Actually no." There was that honesty again. "It's actually kind of sleezy, how old are you? Ninteen, twenty?"_**

**_"Twenty." He answered._**

**_"Well, I think it would probably be best if you dated someone your own age, maybe in your own school. Makes life easier to get by. I mean, you do seem like a jerk." Honesty wasn't always the best answer though. But showing a little backbone really went a long way at times._**

**_Roy snickered to himself. "That hurts. Alright, change of plans." He glared down at Edward. "We are no longer friends. If I catch you around her, I'm going to flatten you, got that short stuff." He poked Ed really hard in the shoulder as he spoke._**

**_"We have some classes together and really, I think she's allowed to see whoever she wants there, Roy." Ed smiled at him._**

**_"You want to play that way? Fine!" Roy quickly lined up and landed a fist right in the middle of Ed's stomach. "Winry's mine! Got that!?"_**

**_Ed, without flinching, nodded in disbelief. "Sure she is Roy. Anything else?"_**

**_Roy was stunned at Ed's lack of response, he hit him pretty hard and not so much as a batted eyelash. "No...I think I got my point across." He took a step back._**

**_"As pointless as it was." Ed scoffed._**

**_Roy tapped him in the face once and then headed off to his vheical and sped off out of the parking lot._**

**_"Ed...you alright?" Aria approached him from behind and gave him a tap on the shoulder._**

**_Finally not being able to hold it any longer, Ed doubled over in a coughing fit on the ground, clutching his stomach in pain._**

-------------------

Not liking the fact that Winry was being objectified, and he was being treated like a dog by this 'Roy' guy, he decided to attack his pride and challanged him to a race, '_Grease_' style.

**_Episode 21_**

**_"I found out that Winry's a big fan of Nascar. So I think she might enjoy a little race. Now, I know we can't win her over, per-say, but whoever loses, has to stop making contact with her. She still gets to make her own choice and we get to settle this like men." Ed smiled, an equally as devious smirk as Roy mustered._**

**_"What's the catch?" Roy then became skeptical._**

**_"No catch. You beat me, I back down. I beat you, you piss off. Sound good?" Ed planted his fists on his hips, he felt he was doing a really good job of being lippy without being offensive._**

------------------------

Fortunatly for Ed, he wasn't planning on winning in his parents van against Roy's Mustang, he and his friends plotted to frame him. They caught the end of the race on video and threatened to show the athorities if Roy didn't keep to himself. The plan worked 100 precent, sadly, Russell forgot to put in the tape, so the race became nothing more than a victorious memory.

**_Episode 22_**

**_"You can't show that video to anyone! I'll lose my seat in university if I lose my license. It's crucial!" Roy pleaded, arm outstretched as if to steal the camera away form Russell._**

**_"No worries." The little red head comforted him. "If you make yourself invisible, I don't see any reason to show this to anyone."_**

**_"...bastards...fuck..." Roy shook his head and went back to his car. "I hope Vato still has some of those chill pills." He said, closing the door to his car. That being all said and done, he sped off down the road._**

**_Paninya stood there in shock. "It worked...it bloody well worked!" She shouted. The group took a short while to celebrate the success of their plot._**

**_"Alright. Let's see the memory card, I'm going to transfer it to my hard drive. It's good to have a copy, I'll burn it to disk too." Ed looked at Russell._**

**_"Right." He said. Reaching for the memory card slot, he popped it open to reveal nothing. "Aaaaahaha. I forgot to put the memory card in." He snickered._**

**_"You stoned fucker!" Paninya clipped him in the back of the head with a firm fist._**

**_"Um." Aria began. "What he doesn't know...can't hurt us....right?"_**

**_The group exchanged glances. "Yeah." They said together. They decided to keep this little secret to themselves, deeming it to dangerous to let this bit of information go to anyone else._**

------------------

It was at this time that Al's health began to fail him. Headache's, nausea, weakness and even a bladder infection. Alphonse had manged to contract something while he was with Clause that one night, and it looked as though he was looking at an STD.

**_Episode 23_**

**_One of the simplest tasks one could partake in during the course of the day, had turned into an overbarring and unenjoyable task. Al leaned against the wall next to the boys bathroom in the school, sweating bullets and slightly out of breath. Just using the washroom took an amazing amount of will power due to the fact it brought on excruating pain._**

----------------

Fortunatly for Al, Ed stuck with him despite the fact that he might have caught HIV. Taking his brother to the clinic at the school, he sat alongside Al in the doctor's office in front of his desk. The doctor promptly placed a bottle of pills in font of them. Relieved that he only had Gonnarhea instead of AIDS, Al sighed and was pleased he didn't have to live with something like that for the rest of his life.

**_Episode 24_**

**_Sitting down in the two of the three chairs provided, they watched the doctor go through a few files. "Alphonse H....here you are." The doctor placed a bottle of pills at the head of his desk in front of Al. "Take them right to the end, be very careful not to mis one dose. You don't want to relapse, then you'll be right back to where you are now."_**

**_"Right." Al said as he reached out to the little orange bottle._**

**_"Wait." Ed interrupted. "Aids is a virus." He pulled the bottle form his twin's hand._**

**_"Ciprofloxacin? This is an antibiotic, it doesn't cure virsus...wait, that means."_**

**_"Al, you don't have Aids, you have Ghonnorea." The doctor corrected him._**

**_"You are shitting me!!!" Al said as he stood up from his chair. "Holy shit. I had myself convinced that I had Aids, thank god!" Al raised his hands in the air. "Thank you so much. I think I'm the only person happy to find out they have Ghonnrea."_**

---------------------------------

At that point, one would believe all was well, and for a while, it was. Ed and Winry had spent so much time together, that a small spark had begun to develop. Ed found himself developing feelings for the blond girl. Reciprocating the emotion, Winry initiated their relationship with a single kiss.

**_Episode 26_**

**_She laughed. "If that's the case, I bet you memorized the periodic table."_**

**_"Actually...I did." He smiled._**

**_Winry allowed her mouth to hang open. "I call bullshit. Prove it." She glanced at her wall. "Oh! Close your eyes." They young blond girl pointed to the periodic table of elements on her wall for study purposes._**

**_"What? You don't trust me not to look. Fine." He shut his eyes. "Hydrogen, Helium, lithium, berylillum, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, Silicon, Phosph-" Edward like to exell at science, so he had memorized the periodic table of elements by eighth grade._**

**_At the midway point, his words shut themselves off and allowed the strange new sensation pass by his lips. It seemed Wirny harbored more feeling for Ed that he originally thought, she had taken advantage of Ed's closed eyes and planted a kiss on him._**

**_Needless to say, Ed was once again at a loss for words, but he enjoyed the kiss just the same, regardless if it was upsidedown. Finally, a brief break in the embrace, Winry had lifted ferself up a little, just to see the look on Ed's face. He smiled. "I lost my spot."_**

**_"You dork." She sat him up and repeated her previous action, this time, right side up._**

-------------------------

And this is where things begin to go downhill again. For Al at least. Unbeknownst to Al, Winry had started dating his brother, in secret. So, the strange bond that twins share caused Al to reach out and begin a hunt for a mate as well. Riza was his first outlet.

**_Episode 27_**

**_"So um...I should have asked this before we came here...is this a 'friend' outing? Or something more?" She said with uncertainty._**

**_"Well...I guess it could just be friendly. No harm in that." He smiled. 'Friends for now' was what he kept telling himself._**

**_"Ok...I just didn't want to make you feel bad or anything, cause, I'm kind of seeing someone at the moment...I'm sorry." She just blurted it all out._**

**_Al was discouraged, but still glad she told him rather than stringing him along. "It's ok. Like I said, friendly." He smiled. It was a shame his plan failed, but he did get to spend some time with a pretty girl. Getting face time with cheerleaders was a good way to boost popularity, so he didn't consider the trip a waste of time._**

-----------------------

Sadly for Al, she wasn't quite to his tastes, being a guy, but she offered her services to help hook him up with a nice girl.

**_Episode 27_**

**_She thought while sipping on her drink. "Aside from all that...since I can see you're really nice, how about I help you out with getting a nice girlfriend, I mean, it's the least I could do for turning you down. Is there anyone on the team you're interested in?" She probed as she poked with her straw._**

--------------------

That was the point when the new girl came into view, Sylvia. Al approched her on the end of her first day, but came to the conclusion that she just wasn't his match.

It was that evening that Al got a ride home with his brother and they convinced him to tag along. At that moment, when Aria allowed him to take the front seat, that Al started to notice just how attractive Aria really was. He had recalled the statement that his friend, Breda, had made about her a few months back, about having a nice bod.

Al decided to accomany them for game night, so they all headed back to Aria's house

**_Episode 30_**

**_"Here, Al." Aria said, stepping out of the front seat._**

**_"You don't have to move." Al said, watching her slide the back door open._**

**_She shook her head. "Sit up front. I like it better down back, it's too warm up there."_**

**_"I told you, it's so the window's don't fog up." Ed defended the heat up front in a smug, joking manner._**

**_Al sat in the seat while Aria slinked into the back, next to Sylvia. He looked into the rearview mirror and caught a good glimpse of Aria's behind as she maneuvered into the back. Shockingly enough, he gawked, remembering what Breda had mentioned to him a couple months back. 'She does have a nice little bod...' He kept that thought to himself._**

--------------------

"And that pretty much brings us right up to today." Paninya said, brushing her hands together.

"I feel like life just flashed before my eyes." Aria said, pressing her back against the wall, her eyes wide. "Wooooah."

Ed shrugged. "This year was pretty good for me...but Al...geez. He's been put through the ringer."

Aria nodded. "It's like karma is using him as their own little punching bag." She sighed. "Poor guy, but he does bring it on himself...most of the time."

The bell rang in the bacement a little quieter than up in the halls. "And it's back to class...I didn't get a chance to eat my pudding." Paninya said, rotating it in her hand.

* * *

Sorry for the long wait, but I don't have a computer that works. I'm at my mom's place now. It's nice that she still puts up with me. (And feeds me. :P)


	34. Episode 34 Out, Out

I do have an excuse for not showing up lately! If you want to know the drama that is my entire fucking life, read the next couple paragraphs, if not, go to the chapter title.

I found out back in January, I think that's when I last updated, that Raeven's father is moving to Halifax...that's about 6 hours away from where I live. She's only 3 and needs her daddy. ;-; We have things worked out and all, but I'm just sad because Dave get's to chase his dreams while I'm stuck at home being a mom with no other option as of right now...being a mom is important too don't get me wrong...still depressing though. I did so much work with Raeven, taught her so many things, spent so much time with her and DAVE get's to cop out of being a parent...needless to say, it didn't please me.

He's moving away so he can help to get a better life for the baby, but it's just annoying that he's not planning the trip properly, not saving enouh money and being reckless. I told him that it was a bad idea...and honestly, for Raeven's sake, I hope he proves me wrong.

But mind at ease, I'm doing a lot better. At least you all know why I wasn't around. I haven't worked since Jan 21st...I was a mess up until yesterday when I came to a revelation...but enough about me; on with the episode! :D

* * *

**Episode 34 - Out, Out**

* * *

The group had noticed it the second she walked through the front doors of the school. Her hair was silky black, as if she had straitened that morning, the push up bra she was sporting helped the low cut shirt reveal just enough so that the school didn't send her home, and her skirt was more for a bar scene, not a school setting. Reason being, it was made of a light lavender material that hugged the curves more than necessary, but she let it be known to the world, she was wearing a black thong, the skirt didn't ride too high on the hips, so the thong straps stuck out about and inch over the line of the skirt. Overall, her nice girl act seemed to be just that, an act, and she quickly reverted back to her old ways.

"You know, it actually took longer than I expected for her to turn...I guess this means I lost that pool." Leo joked as they headed to the bacement for lunch. The lunch room was usually packed, and Leo found that there was too much drama for him to handle in there, so, at the beginning of the year, in the first week no less, he had suggested claiming the downstairs as their own.

Surly enough, it was a successful move that was sticking, and growing. Since the beginning of the year, they had added Edward and Sylvia to their ranks. And maybe, there was even a littel room to keep growing.

"You had a pool* and didn't let me in? Bitch." Paninya scoffed. "But I will give her props, she wears that skirt well." She smirked as she recalled watching Clause carry a stack of books to her classroom earlier in the morning. The girl did love hard work, she had heard Clause say that it was good for the legs in cheerleading, so she always volenteered when something needed to be carried.

"She's a very odd individual. It's like she was bipolar. I use to have a friend who was diagnosed bipolar. Very creepy guy." Sylvia shivered as she bit into her ham and cheese sandwich.

"Creepy? Isn't bipolar where someone is really happy one second, and then raging mad the next with no reason? Or something similar?" Aria questioned, she didn't find that to be terribly creepy.

"Yeah." Sylvia agreed. "He had that too, but it just I remember this one time, we were cutting through a graveyard, and he started freaking out saying that he saw someone standing over by a tree. We all went over to the tree, except for him, but there was nothing there." She laid the sandwich down on top of her orange lunch bag. "What's weirder, someone was burried there the next day, in that exact spot."

"Freaky..." Ed chimed in. "Was the ground marked when you guys looked at it?" He tried to bring the scarry level down a kotch by offering some reason.

Sylvia shook her head. "Nah. Not at all. That's the freaky part. And none of us knew the guy being burried either, he was old from the date on the tombstone though. 1928." She said with shock.

"Not bad. Good long life." Russ added in. "We should actually go to a graveyard sometime. Dad just bought a new camera, so we can see if anything shows up." He said with anticipation to play with a new eletronic device.

Ed nodded. "Yeah. Sounds like fun."

Paninya leaned over to Russell. "Just remember to put the film in this time." She snickered. Her comment wasn't met with words, only a middle finger from the boy with the faded green hair. "Ha! But I agree, sounds fun."

Leo looked through his daily planner issued by the school. "This Sunday's a full moon, we totally should. You never know what kind of spooks will show up."

"Nooo-no-no-no. No way. I'm out. I'll watch the tape when you get back." Sylvia shook her hands in front of herself. "After that last incedent, I'm still sketchy."

Aria wined. "Aww, come on. It'll be a good bonding expirence." She clasped her hands. "...and I don't want to be the only wuss going."

Russell looked at her with confusion. "I thought you were into the whole Wicca thing, and summoning spirits and shit. Isn't this everyday stuff for you?"

She shook her head. "I'm not Wiccan, I'm Neo-Pagen. People who are Wiccan belong to the Black Forest coven, I just follow a similar form of the belief...and I don't summon anything, I don't even cast spells. I'm more one for praying and meitating."

"...I'll take your word for it." He said, disamused.

"Though I can do spells, and if you're not nice, I'll turn you into a frog; we all know how much you like them." She smirked deviously.

Russ reminised back to the camping trip where she had chased him with one of the 'slimy little bastards', as he so refered to them as. "Not funny." He folded his arms.

The a few moments of silence they were enduring was broken by Aria saying 'RAH!' and pointing her hands and all her fingers at Russell in hopes of transforming him. It didn't work, but it did make him jump, which made the rest of the friends laugh. "Piss off." He said through a chuckle as he nailed Aria in the head with a clementine.

"AH! Citrus!" She fell backwards, legs bent and in a seim-in-the-air position. "My eye!" Some of the juce had caught her in the corner of her eye and it had begun to sting not too soon after contact.

"Ah, don't worry, you won't melt...or will you?" Russell pondered his statement with a chin rub on his non-existant beard.

* * *

"Ok, so we're all going to the March 1st dance right?" One of the girls at the luch table accosed the rest of her friends. They all nodded in approval, all except for Riza. "Come on, you never go to dances with us. You don't have to dance if you don't want to, just hang out."

Riza shook her head. "I feel weird not going with a date, sorry. Not for me."

The girl with the curled brown hair leaned over the table. "Why not go with my brother? He's only a year older than you and he's single right now. It think you'd be good together."

"I don't think she needs a boyfriend, that's not her type." Clause said in the snottiest cadence she could manage.

"Clause!" Riza said, moth ajar. She glanced around the table to find her getting stares from all around.

"Clause!" Winry reitterated. "Shut-up."

"You're a lesbian?" The same brown haired girl said.

"I let her hold me up the other day." A girl, one of the tops, said from down the end of the table, her hands covering her mouth as she said it. Sadly, she was still heard.

"Katie! Shut up!" Winry bellowed at her loud enough to get the point across, but not loud enough for the entire lunchroom to hear.

"I'm....I-...." Riza broke down in sobs and quickly ran from the table, doing her best to cover the upset look on her face.

"Clause!" She said once again. "What the hell?" Winry was outraged. Riza had instilled her trust to only a few girls in the entire school, Clause and Winry were two of them.

She shrugged. "I thought she told everyone. Al knew, I thought it was out already."

"You know she didn't!" Winry said a littel louder. "Listen." She calmed herself down. "Riza is with someone right now that she loves dearly, she's not interested in anyone else. And if any of you make it hard for her, or me, by refusing to do moves with her, I will end your time on this team."

"There's no 'I' in 'team' Winry." Clause rolled her eyes as she 'rocked to boat'.

Winry was made well aware that Clause's 'nice girl' days were over, but that didn't mean she had to go along with it. "No, there's no 'I', but if you jumble it up, there is 'meat' and that's what you'll be if you start shit, dead meat." Winry clasped her hands together as she conversed with the rest of the team. "Please girls, we're at the top of our game and we have Riza to thank for that; her expirence and strength is what is doing it for us. Without her, our symmetry would be off, and if she quits because of this, we're going to have to make a new routine for nationals, and I don't think anyone feels like doing that." Winry sat back down and hung her head trying to think of something else to say to defend her friend.

"You're right...I should go appoligize to her." Katie said from the end of the table and began to stand up.

"Yeah. Winry's right, she's gay, not diseased. Why don't we all go, just tell her it's ok." The girl who suggested her brother as a potential said with shame. "I sounded kind of snotty to her too." The team began to rise from their designated chairs.

"Thank you so much guys. Acceptance goes a long way." Winry had a couple of tears in either of her eyes, the entire group's understanding really stirred up Winry's happiness. She turned back to Clause. "You guys all go, I need to talk to Clause."

"Woo, spooky." She rolled her eyes yet again as she watched the rest of the team make tracks.

After the group had left Winry sat down across from her dark haired friend. "Alright...I know you're going throuh some tough stuff right now, but that's no reason to take it out on your friends. Smarten up." Winry was rather displeased when speaking to her.

"Why does it seem like you don't care?" She cocked her head.

Winry sighed. "Because you don't seem to be acting like it's bothering you. You come in today, overconfident, dressed like you're ready for a night on the town. Clause, if you don't care about what happened, how can I?" She stood up. "You are not well. From what I can tell, instead of making yourself well again, you'r just making everyone around you as miserable as you feel. You need to go talk to someone and get this skeleton out of your closet."

"Geez, if I'd have known I had a skeleton in my closet, I'd have asked Riza to grab it on her way out." She snickered.

She shook her head. "Not funny." That being said, Winry grabbed the remainder of Riza's lunch and her lunch bag on the way away from the table.

"Oh come on! That one was funny!" She folded her arms and sat at the table by herself. "Whatever." She scanned the lunch room for something else to do.

* * *

Winry allowed the heavy lunchroom doors swing wildly behind her and she she made some distance from the lunch room, she let a few tears slip down her face. She was bothered by what happened to her friend, but giving her too much lead way was only going to end up bad for eveyone in the end. It hurt her a lot to talk to her like that so soon after the incedent, but she did have an entire team that depended on her, she couldn't let them down; her parents would never forgive her if she failed.

She looked up to see Ed down the end of hall, chatting and carrying on with his friends. She quickly sprinted toward him. "Ed!" She caught his attention and grabbed his arm on her sprint past the rest of the group. "Emergency tutoring! I have a test next class!" She pulled him away from the group without his concent. "Sorry guys, I'm borrowing him." Winry tugged him away so quickly his feet barely touched the floor.

They stood there, dumbfounded.

* * *

She held him tight. It was dark, but she held him tightly in her embrace, and made the dark feel like nothing.

"Not that I mind or anything-" He said, hugging her tight. "-but what's wrong? The test can't be that bad." Ed was oblivious to what was really happening.

Winry shook her head that was still pressed firmly against Ed's chest. "Sorry, there's no test...I'm just having touble with a friend, and we just had a fight...I just needed a hug." She loosened her grip, only enough to give him a peck on the lips.

"I'm new at this, so bare with me...do you want to talk about it or something?" Edward awkwardly questioned.

She laughed slightly. "No...not this time. It's a little personal...but thanks. Next time I have a burden, I'll be sure to share it."

They both chuckeled and stayed there in warm enbrace till Winry was calm again. Suddenly, there was a bright light and they quickly broke apart.

"What are you two doing?" The janitor stepped in the closet. "I need the mop. Some kids in the lunch room decided to fight with orange pop, it's a mess." He walked past the two of the teens and began to wheel the mop bucket between them. "..." He looked at Winry, and then to Ed. "Don't you think this is a little cliche?"

Ed shrugged. "Not really Mr. Sanchez...aren't you going to ask us to leave?" He was confused.

"Are you going to steal anything?" The older man questioned.

Winry and Ed both looked around the room for something steal-able. "No." Ed said.

"That wet-dry mop is nice...but I don't think I need it." Winry said in joking fashion, she was starting to feel better.

"Well then, just lock the door on your way out." That being said, he shut the door behind himself, leaving Ed and Winry in the dark once again.

"...Huh...how about that." Edward scratched the back of his head.

* * *

*Betting pool, not swimming pool...just so we're clear. I was so confused when I first heard the term, so just in case someone didn't know, that's what I was talking about. Still not clear? Google it. ;P

And I know I'm a bitch too...I just came up with that skeleton comment right off the top of my head, quick whit and what not, and I could not help but laugh. Sorry if I offend, but it's for the sake of humor, not of hate. XD


	35. Episode 35 Discovery

So yes, the writer's block has lifted and I will be updating more readily...hopefully.

The way I started looking at this fic, and realized it's time for a new season, so to speak. So it's the new arc that opened with Clause.

**_!!!Refresher!!! _**

Clause stopped taking her medication again, dreading the side effect of acne  
tarnishing her image. She goes out one evening and finds herself in a bad situation.  
After being the victim of rape, Clause's personality slumps back into it's  
normal, _'I'm a bitch to the world' _mode.

After telling the entire cheerleading squad that Riza was gay, she really  
put her spot on the team on the line. Things were patched up with  
Riza, but it was at this point that Winry began to question  
the whole situation and wonder why Clause didn't want to  
press charges against the assailant.

* * *

**Episode 35 - Discovery**

* * *

Winry sat at the end of her friend's bed and swung her feet back and forth. She wondered where the tape was.

After many hours of begging, Winry finally convinced Clause to at least get the security camera and see who it was that violated her. Clause said she got it, watched it and said the guy had his back turned the whole time, so it was useless. 'Are you sure? Let me take a look.' Was Winry's request, but it was met with an 'I'm too embarrassed.' excuse.

The thought had crossed her mind many times, but now that the tape was supposedly in the room, it was too close to pass up. Clause was in getting a shower before the dance, so Winry had some time.

She knew Clause quite well when it came to revenge, and it wasn't something she commonly passed up. Why didn't she care what had happened enough to get the guy who did it? From where Winry had found Clause that night, there was no way that someone was so careful that their face didn't show up once. And she said nothing about his face being masked.

If she didn't want revenge, then she must have been protecting someone. Winry thought about that night. Alphonse had opted out of hanging with them that evening, but never stated where he was going. Clause was out too as she recalled. It linked too perfectly.

The blond girl paused in her search. '_Why would she have tried to frame Al in one situation, and cover for him in another.'_ It didn't make sense. It had to have been something else.

The clever girl had taped it to the bottom of her desk drawer, right at the back, on the underneath of the desk. Unfortunate for Clause, Winry wanted to check every spot in the desk when the drawer, which only had junk and an empty bottle of pain killers, hit a snag and wouldn't pull out any further. Sure enough, the video tape was caught.

Reaching for the VCR that Clause still owned, brushed off and brought down from the attic, she hesitated. '_What if she really is trying to protect him? No, that doesn't ma-_' She heard the door at the end of the hall open and Clause yell to her older sister for a larger towel.

'**You gave me a hand towel.**' Clause bellowed down the hall.

Placing the tape carefully in her purse, she zipped it up so she could watch it after the dance. If they were planning on having fun tonight, Winry felt she was best off not knowing, just in case it was someone they knew.

* * *

"Alright, so we're sure there's no one who's going to notice?" Aria asked, rubbing her hands together.

"The lock's been busted for months now, if someone was looking after it, don't you think they'd have fixed it by now?" Russell said as he filmed the earlier part of the graveyard, dark, light-less. He panned over to Aria who was walking along side Sylvia. "Scared yet girls?" He snickered.

"No..." They looked over their shoulders at the sound of stick breaking.

"Sorry." Ed said as he walked through an unmelted patch of snow which was hiding many things; it was only March, so it hadn't warmed up completely.

Finally approaching the old church, Leo grabbed hold of the stick wedged in between the door handles and slid it out. The doors didn't move, firmly shut from the weather beating on them.

"Genius, it's a pull, not a push." Paninya piped up.

He rolled his eyes. "I know...it's for dramatic effect. We're filming, remember?" He took a step inside.

Russell waved vigorously from under the camera, making sure his hand was in the shot, as if to remind Paninya that there was a camera in her midst.

"Sure you were. Hurry up, I wanna see." She turned her attention away from the camera and back into the church hall. It wasn't a very large church, but there were a few rooms that were just begging to be photographed.

Sylvia looked from side to side. "Where did all the pew's go?" She could make out the hint of 'drag' lines with the faint light from the camera.

"I guess people took them to burn. They're usually made of good solid wood, so..." Leo shrugged.

"I'd be afraid to do that." Aria shivered. "Who knows who you're pissing off. We leave everything just how it was when we got here...it's ok to nudge things, but don't take anything home." She said with a firm tone.

"Yes Sir." Paninya groaned.

"I don't think there's anything here worth taking." Ed assured her. He picked up a book off the floor and dangled it from his hand, the dust nearly poured off.

"Eheww." Sylvia looked at the tarnished book, there was a clump of dust, hanging from a hair, dangling from the book Edward was waving. "Should we just start taking pictures? This place smells like 'old basement'." She pulled her disposable camera out of her pocket.

"Good idea." Leo turned to face the group. "Let's split up."

"Are you nuts?!" Aria squeaked in a terrified voice. "That's just what they want! Split us up and pick us off one by one."

"Who's they? ...Never mind. Fine, we'll go in couples." Leo attempted to come up with an alternative.

"NO!" Aria said. "If we do that we would have to have boy girl teams. What if one of the teams will give into their lusty desires under the pressure of the haunting and the spirits will go after them first." She folded her arms. "You know it's only the virgins who live."

"I think that only applies for psycho's, not ghosts." Russ mentioned.

"You sure?" She glanced at the camera. "Well if that's true then fine, but there's still the rule of the black guy dying first."

"You need to get out from in front of your television. The rules of horror films do not apply in real life." Leo shrugged. "Besides, we don't have a black guy on out team."

Aria pointed a finger at him. "Ah! Paninya's half-and-half."

"I don't think that counts dude." Paninya laughed.

Edward sighed. "Those are just horror story rules. Real ghosts, if they exist, more than likely wouldn't have a particular skin color preference. Also, I don't think they're too many angry spirits in a church, this is where funerals are held, not where the death or murder of the victim took place. They would be haunting the place where they died; I'd say the best we'd get here are a few orbs or spirits that don't want to let go, or rather, need to say goodbye. Nothing vengeful."

The group stared at Ed. "Oh, you mean like unfinished business...that actually makes me feel better." Aria smiled. "...but just a little." She shivered.

"So have you done this before?" Russell pointed the camera at Ed.

"No." He said. "I'm just assuming... But, if we're going to pick teams." He motioned to Leo and Russ. "You two check out the upstairs, you can get a good view of the whole church that way. Paninya and Sylvia can check the back and Aria and I will get the basement."

"Why do you get to pick the pairings?" Leo huffed.

"Doesn't really matter to me, I figured this way would work best. If we paired off trying to not have a girl-boy team, there would end up being one anyway, there's six of us." He allowed that to sink in. "Also, this way, no one is paired in such a way that they're not pair with someone else who's nervous in here."

"What if you give into 'lusty desires' out there?" Leo joked.

"I won't because I have someone-**in mind**." Without missing a beat, he quickly caught himself.

"Ooh, who is it?" Aria poked at him, she could hear the camera zoom in, beside her, lining up to be a dramatic shot in post production.

"I don't want to say, It'll jinx it." He lied; Edward never believed in jinxing. Russ zoomed back out.

"I'll pry it out of him. Come on Ed, I accept the pairing." Aria waved him along, away from the group.

* * *

"So who is it?" She asked right off the bat, walking along side Ed down the dusty stairs of the abandoned church, powered dust collected around their feet with each step.

He shook his head. "It's not going to work that easily. Let's just get some pictures." He looked around the basement. It was a dorm for all the clergy, addled with spider webs, dust and the occasional mouse.

Aria peered from left to right, eyeing the yellow, age stricken walls of the downstairs. "What if one of them committed suicide down here?" She peeked into a nearby room. The dusty frame of a bed looked as though it was just thrown into the room. An old box and stool were also in the room.

"Doubt it. And if I'm wrong-" He shut the first door they were looking into and snapped a picture of the entire contents of the long narrow hallway. "-We should see a little something pop up in the pictures, right?" He opened the door and snapped one of the small tome.

The little red head peered down the hall to see twelve rooms and a boiler room. "Twelve rooms, one boiler room shot, the other room over there and this hallway' She turned to point at it. "...we have tons of shots to do. That's fifteen and then we can just get nine close-ups of interesting things."

"Nine extras? I can do that." Ed began to click away, following the numbers on the doors form one to twelve, just so they could remember which room was what, for reference purposes if things showed up.

Making their way to the boiler room, they tried the door. "The lock seems jammed, I don't think we can open it."

Ed rolled his eyes. "This isn't 'Silent Hill', hold the camera." Handing the disposable camera to Aria, he stepped up to the door and with one swift kick by the door handle, and it just busted to splinters.

She and Ed stood there in awe. "I don't know about Harry, but Heather could have totally had that in her." She referenced to the series.

"Wait a sec." Edward lowered his kicking leg and looked at the frame of the door. "It's so damaged. I probably could have sneezed on it and it would have broken. And here I thought I was awesome."

"You shouldn't have said anything, I didn't even think of that." She smiled. "We'll just pretend your awesome."

"Thanks." He chuckled with her as she handed him the camera back. "Let's get some light." Aria led the light around to room for him. "I think we may need two shots in here." He took a picture of the initial side of the room and then the other side with the boiler and hole in the wall.

"What was that? Was that a hole? Should we get a picture in there?" She pointed to the two foot wide hole near the boiler.

Ed froze.

Aria teased him. "Want me to take a pic of the big scary hole? I protect you from the ghosts."

Edward edged toward the hole. "It's not ghosts I'm concerned about. I'm more afraid of a raccoon thinking I'm here to eat her babies, jumping out and tearing me a new one."

She wearily looked at the hole. "Fair enough. Just stand back and take it." The flash went off. "Hmm?"

"What?" Ed lowered the camera.

She gazed through the darkness with her small pen flashlight. "I thought I saw something..."

"Not funny." Ed shivered, he wasn't looking forward to contend with a nocturnal creature in the dark. Unlevel playing field.

"Nothing spooky...just looked like something was in there...kind of looked like garbage on second thought."

He shook his head. "Well, we'll see what the pictures have to say."

"Right." From the creaky ceiling came a low hum, one that resonated through the entire structure, one of that of an instrument. "Looks like they found the organ."

Ed held his chest. "Scared the shit out of me." He sighed. "Let's check out the room at the other end of the hall and then we'll go back to the forayer."

"Sure." They left the room. "Um, Ed..." She began.

"What?" He looked over his shoulder.

"...I-yeee...eh, never mind."

"No come on, what?" He pried.

She hesitated. "...I'll tell you what it is if you tell me who you've got your eyes on." Aria beamed in a sly manner.

"I see." He narrowed his eyes at her. "That's not going to work either. Get me to spill and you have nothing to say. I'm on to you."

She laughed. "Seriously, I do have something to say."

Ed took a step back to hear her out. "You go first. A little quid pro quo "

She looked a little embarrassed. "I kind of have a crush on someone too...but he likes someone else. I just wanted to know if he may have given me a chance if I asked first."

"Not sure. Why not ask him?" Ed was oblivious.

"I'm too afraid of being turned down...and what if he really doesn't like me at all and makes fun. I hate getting picked on, so I don't feel like putting myself in that situation. Please Ed."

He shoved his hands into his coat pocket. "Why tell me this? Do you want me to go up and talk to him, I'm bad as a mediator. I'm terrible talking to people I don't know...do I know him?" Ed went to clarify just if he knew the guy or not.

"You do know him. You live with him." She revealed her crush to Ed. "Why else would I be asking you, you're the closest."

Taking a moment to let that sink in, he inhaled deeply. "...Al? Not meaning to sound bitter...but why?"

"Well..." She began. "He seems like the strong silent type who goes misunderstood. I don't know, he just intrigues me, I want to get to know him, to see what he's like, what makes him tick...is that weird?"

Ed shrugged. "With Al? If we're talking human experiments, maybe a little weird; but wanting to date him, that's just surreal."

"Funny." She rolled her eyes.

"I'll see what he says, but I'm telling you now, don't get your hopes up." Ed was well aware that his brother was quite judgmental of the way people looked, and was still unsure if Alphonse would go for a 'freak'. He did notice him checking her out he when they all hung out, but that didn't mean anything. Curves is curves.

"That's comforting. Why? Not popular enough?" She wasn't offended, just assumptive.

"No, not colorful enough." He admitted.

Aria pondered to herself. "Really now, cause I'm not a plastic? I'm sure I could do something about that."

Ed sighed and looked back at her. "Don't try to change to impress him. You'll regret it."

She was touched. "Thanks Ed. I'll figure something else out then...still, ask?."

"Cool, sure." He said approaching the other door. "Kick?" He said, trying to turn the knob, which turned and opened flawlessly.

"No kick." Aria stated. Ed looked disappointed.

"Aaaw." Ed began to take additional pictures in the larger room, which looked like it could have served as a lounge, or television room.

"Anytime now Ed." Aria said, rather annoyed.

"Anytime? For what?" He said as if he didn't know.

"Who is it that you like?" She got closer.

"Oh right." He smiled wide. "I'm not telling you."

"What?! We had a deal." Aria stomped.

"Yeah, I lied. Sorry." Edward couldn't help but smirk. "Now if you keep bugging me about it, I'll tell them you have a crush on Al. See how well that goes over."

The red haired girl was at a loss for word. "But--yo--...sneaky son of a bitch." She couldn't help but laugh a little, Ed must have been too shy to say. "..." He followed behind him in silence. "I'll figure it out...don't you worry."

"Sure you will." He said, heading back up the stairs.

* * *

She had seen it with her own eyes. Clause was at the dance with Alphonse. She recalled him being told to lower his standards, but this was too much; could he possibly have wanted a girlfriend that badly? Dry humping on the dance floor wasn't something you wanted to be doing with someone who wanted to frame you to go out with them. It seemed that Alphonse had some demons of his own to contend with.

"Hey Winry." Riza's voice sounded from behind her.

Turning to face her, she saw Maria at her side. "You decided to come? Awesome." Winry was quite happy to see everything patched up amidst her team. With one exception, _the bee_.

"Yeah. I talked it over with the girls, and they wanted to make sure Maria was good enough for me." She pulled in closer to her hips.

"I'll blow them away." Maria said, giving her girlfriend a hug.

"Try not to come on too strong though." She smiled wide.

"No worries." Riza nodded in return. "I think we're good." The young couple walked off to the refreshment table.

Winry herself was there without a date, for obvious reasons, secrecy. She wanted to leave early, but didn't want it to seem suspicious, the tape was burning a hole in her purse.

* * *

Winry's prayer's were answered, in a very non conventional way, but they were answered. Cramps had started. She needed to go home and lay down. Damn shame.

Managing to stay nearly till the end, ten thirty, she drove herself home and quickly made a break for her bedroom. Winry knelt down in front of her VCR/DVD player and popped in the tape. Pushing the button for the TV, she waited for it to get past the fuzz.

Recalling the time Clause called, she fast forwarded to the time that she figured everything went down. Sure enough, Clause emerged from the bar, a tall man on her arm, getting her to walk. There was no audio, so she could only fill in the blanks.

She watched them. They walked through the alley, directly in line of the camera, the man's face was directly on screen. Winry recognized the face and the bright dyed orange hair. It was Vato, Sheska'sboyfriend. "She just didn't want to get her sister's boyfriend in trouble?" Winry held her hand out to the screen as if she was expecting more. She paused the video, not wanting to watch what happened next. "It still doesn't make sense." Flicking her blond hair behind her, she stared at the frozen image; as choppy as it was, she could still see their expressions. Clause looked like she was wasted, even took a bottle outside with her. Vato was trying to light up a cigarette while holding Clause up.

"I'll just squint." She said as she pressed the play button. She wanted to know what happened, but she still didn't want to see it.

The scene unfolded. Clause looked like she had gotten into an argument with Vatoand he pushed her against the brick wall. But from there on out, he just yelled at her and then left her outside alone. "The hell...who was it then?" Winry got close to the screen, only two feet away. As the tape continued, more things began to make sense. Finally, the end of the tape was reached, Winry sat there, moth ajar. "I suppose that makes the pieces fit."

She hit the eject button, and removed the tape.

* * *

I love doing that. Keep ya h_aaaaang_in'.  
Tell me what you think. I know it's a little long, but I was making up for lost time.

* * *


	36. Episode 36 First of Many

Here we go, another chapter, and look, it didn't take to f...ing months thistime.

**_Please read the athor's not at the end of this chapter. I need your help. Thankies :)_**

* * *

**Episode 36 - First of Many**

* * *

Winry sat on the floor at the foot of her bed and grimaced. She had watched it, she couldn't un-watch it. Trying her best to figure out the reasoning, she could only come up with Clause wanting sympathy from everyone. If she got the tape, still couldn't figure out who it was, the pain, that everyone else would perceive her to be going through, looked more brutal. '_He's still out there._' She could hear those words rattle in her head with a look of sorrow and Clause's face attached to it.

"Bitch." She clenched the longer strands of her mauve shag carpet.

* * *

"_Alphonse! Please." She begged him to stop walking away and to talk to her._

"_Listen." He turned to face her. "I've had enough of your antics, and I don't feel like listening to what you have to say. We're on rocky ground as is, don't push it." He laid down his warning._

"_Please." She began to cry._

_Al rolled his eyes and tried to look for one of her friends in the hall so she could talk to them instead; it was the hall to the alternate bathrooms that were farther away, the main ones were too crowded. Of course, Clause followed him. "Jeez." He was becoming frustrated._

"_Why do you think I did it?" She said through her tears._

_He whipped around and looked her straight in the eyes. "Because you're a nut!" He said, half yelling._

"_NO!" She full out yelled back. "It's because...I love you."_

"_What?" He said, very confused._

"_After I saw you chasing Winry, then you said you only like blonds, I felt so helpless, like I didn't have a chance. Al, you're so talented at basketball and you're so attractive and charming, I just, fell for you. I was so scared that I'd lose my chance that I got desperate. And after that party...I thought we might have had something...I just got my hopes up. I'm sorry Al. I know I've said it to you before, but I really am. I want a chance to prove myself to you." She clasped her hands together. "It doesn't have to be written in stone, I just need to feel like someone cares. And I want it to be you." She sobbed harder. "After Friday, I feel like I'm at the end of my rope. I need something to go right. Please?"_

"_I don't know..." He became somewhat calmer. Her words did seem sincere, and she was upset. "Friday? What happened?"_

_She bit her lip. "Well...I was really bummed and needed something to keep my mind of it. So I snuck into a bar. I think someone slipped me something, because I faded out. All I remember was being up against the brick wall...there was some guy, he was have his way...with..." She broke down._

"_Shh." He said, pulling her into a hug, he didn't want to hear **that** word get uttered. Al hated that word. Figuring the situation was a little more serious he bounced some consideration around in his head. Also, he couldn't help but feel partially responsible for how she felt, he did kind of lead her on. But this. This was something serious. "Did you contact an adult?"_

"_Yes." She cried into his chest. "I got the security tape, but his face didn't appear on screen, I can't even get the bastard."_

_Alphonse did his best to comfort her. "We really can't change what happened...but alright. You can have your chance." He squeezed tighter._

"_Really?" She clenched her fist behind his back and mouthed the word 'yes' without him knowing, widely grinning. She looked at him with her sad expression again. "You're not just saying that?"_

_He did his best to smile. "No harm in trying. I mean, I suppose I did make you feel like there was something. I should follow through." He kissed her softly. "But no funny stuff, ok?" He hugged her again._

"_I Promise..." She squeezed back. Finally, she got what she wanted. "Now..." She rubbed all the sadness from her face. "I'm going to splash some cold water on my face. Then let's go dance." She said. "Can't change the past. So let's press on to our future." She loosened her grip and headed off into the bathroom._

"_Right." He stared blankly at the door for a solid minute. "**Our?** ...what did I just do?" He questioned his own actions._

_

* * *

_

"Then why did you say it?" Breda gave him a playful smack in the back of the head. "Dumbass." Monday had made it's way back and the friends from the basketball team were eating lunch in their usual spot in the lunchroom.

Al rested his head down on the table. "It seemed like a good idea when it was all happening. Now I regret it. But I can't help but feel responsible somehow." He ruffled his own hair. "I'm torn."

"You could work this to your advantage." Breda nudged him. "You can have a little play time with her, but still actively look for someone else. When you find someone, do something to make _her_ break it off with _you_ and then you can move on to the better choice. Why not Clara? She likes you."

He shook his head. "One girl with mental problems is enough, I don't need someone who's got two percent body fat and still thinks they're a blimp." He lifted his head and looked around the lunch room, she was nowhere in sight. "Besides, like I'd want to 'play' with her. Last time that happened I ended up with something that burned whole lot."

That particular statement caught Kain off guard and he laughed.

"Shutyourface!It'snotfunny." Al bellowed comedically.

"Sorry Al." He said through yet another snicker. "But you gotta admit, this wasn't one of your better moves."

"Mmmm, yeah. I know...and now I'm royally fucked." He looked at the milk in his hand. "Nothing is going right is it?" He took a swig of his white milk, the chocolate milk was sold out by the time he got to the lunchroom because he had to take the long way around to avoid running into 'her'. "My reputation was almost ruined by her, I can't imagine what this is going to do to me."

"Probably not a whole lot." Kain coaxed.

"Oh really? How so?" Al was skeptical.

Kain shrugged. "I don't know why she did it. But after you two had that falling out, then the court case, she started spreading more rumors around the school."

"I fail to see how this is good."

"They were good rumors." He stated. "She debunked all the other rumors that were flying around and chalked it up to misunderstandings and miscommunications, that way, anyone else, besides the close knit friends, don't know the truth. So she essentially, cleaned her own slate."

"More like covered her own ass." He rolled his eyes.

"So she could try again." Breda finished off the thought.

The three of them exchanged glances. "You should talk to her." Kain said.

"I don't know...maybe I should give it about a week...see how things are." He swirled his straw in his milk. "I mean, could she have changed?" He asked. His questions was met with a couple 'are your serious' glares. "..."

* * *

"Clause." Winry began. "I really can't help but think that something about this isn't right." She said, picking the frosting off her pastry and eating it first, it was an 'ah caramel'.

"I don't want to say anything. I don't even know why he did it." She was referring to the tape that she got from the bank. "Vato was really out of his mind, I don't want to say anything, what if he comes after me? Or his friends." She knew that Winry was well aware that he was good buddies with Roy, who was now, so far, still out of the picture. She continued writing out last class's writing assignment.

Earlier that morning, Winry had stopped over at Clause's for breakfast, quickly replacing the tape in it's hiding spot, she again requested to watch it. This time, it worked. However, Clause only showed her up to the part where she was pushed against the wall. She said that there was still a great deal of shame attached to the video and just didn't want it played, which is why she initially refused when her friend requested to see it. "We should go to your parents. We have the proof." She was planning on catching her in the act of lying. If she admitted it, then Winry would drop the whole thing. If not, her position was going to be replaced on the team, Winry had a few names in mind.

"Winry, listen." She stopped writing in her notebook for a second. "This has never happened to me before, I'm incredably embarassed. I do not want _anyone_ else to know beyond who knows right now, ok?"

She could tell that Clause was really playing it up. "Whatever." Winry cracked her knuckles, she seldom did so, beneath the table, away from Clause's ears. 'Give her time...she'll come around.' Deciding to wait and see if anything changes, she gave Clause till the end of the week, if she didn't fes-up, then Winry would put her plan in motion.

* * *

"Alright. Let's see those pictures." Leo said as they finished up watching the tape during their lunchtime. The basement was always a safe place for them to talk about things of the sort without drawing any attention.

"They're still in at the photo place." Paninya said.

"Do we have time to go get them?" Sylvia asked. "I really want to see the walk in fridge." The church they went to, after closer investigation, also functioned as a hall for the church gatherings, so there was a full kitchen, and dining room. Nothing massive, maybe for a small dinner party.

"Dude, I'm working on the cheap right now, I put them in for the week. I couldn't afford the 24 hour one anyway." She rested back on her hands. "Sorry."

"Damn!" Leo shook his bottle of juice up. "Well, looks like we got a wait in front of us."

* * *

Yes, it was done on purpose. I already have the next arc planned out, so there's not going to be a 'wait forever' deal again.

This time, it's a horror arc. Still, the finer points of the arc are being tweaked...main one I'm having trouble is what caracter I'm putting in next. Needs to be male.

Any suggestions? (Not Wrath though, from the first series, I hate that kid.)  
Who would you like to see?

* * *


	37. Episode 37 Planning

I hope I didn't lose too many of you in the long stretch of time that I didn't update.

So sorry. But, I think you guys will like this chapter. :)

* * *

**Episode 37 - Planning**

* * *

Winry was fuming! Not only did Clause fail to come clean about her 'not rape' she was using it as a ploy to guilt Alphonse into dating her. Needless to say, Clause's position on the team was on it's final thread. "I have to confront her!" She said, sitting cross legged at the foot of Edward's bed.

"You should...but be delicate." He rubbed her shoulders. At pratice that afternoon, she had to fill in for Clause on the bottom and was so use to being a top, she had pulled a muscle. "Tell her you're going to talk to Vato or your sister, corner her and make her confess basically."

"I'm considering that...deeply considering it." She roller her shoulders and gave Ed a tap on the hand to signify she was satasfied. "I just don't want her to do anything stupid. She'll try to kill herself, I just know it. She's tried it before."

"Really? How?" He manuvered so he and Winry sat side by side on his bed, backs against the wall.

"Pills; what else?" She cracked her knuckles again.

Edward was at a loss for words, he usually had great advice to give others, but now, even he was stumped. He then had an idea. "Why not get her on a suicide watch?"

Winry made eye contact. "Something like that exists?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Had a family member back in my old town who was on it. Stopped him over four of his attempts. He was depressed. Finally got the help he needed when he realized that people cared. Maybe that's what she needs. She wasn't really violated, so that makes things a little easier, doesn't it?"

She sighed and played with her bangs. "It really does...but..." Winry leaned on his shoulder. "She's been my friend for so long, I'm just afraid she's going to hate me if I expose her. Sure she get's on my nerves a lot, but we've got a lot of history. I don't want to lose that."

"It's better than letting her hurt others, it's only going to come back and bite her in the ass later." He held her close. "You've got to tell her parents though. She's suppose to be taking medication right? Maybe she stopped."

"She did too." Winry had a revelation.

"What? How do you know?"

"It slipped my mind, but I was having pain, so I went into her drawer to look for some ibprofeen and the bottle was filled with her medicine. I thought she just may have changed the bottle to carry it with her so no one would know, but I bet she put the over the counter pills in her prescription bottle. I just didn't want to think that, so I ignored it." She lowered her head. "So stupid."

"You wanted to think the best of your friend, that's not stupid. You've got to talk to her folks. Mrs. Curtis has a lot to do, and dealing with a suicidal teen is stressful."

* * *

After a deep discussion with Izumi, Winry finally came out and told her about the incident at the club Clause went to, the tape and even about the pills. The conversation was just to much for Winry and she broke down into tears. "I'm sorry Izumi, but I just didn't know what else to do. She's going to hate me, I just know it." She sobbed into her tissue.

"Unless she thinks you have nothing to do with it. She hasn't mention a thing to me. But, I suppose if nothing bad actually happened, that would explain what she hasn't been acting any differently." From years of tending to her daughter's difficulties, she was quick to note when something was wrong. "Now, you're sure you've watched the tape?"

"Yes." Winry quivered. "She just used a beer bottle to make the bruises inside herself. I'm positive..."

Izumi laid a hand on her shoulder. "I'll go in her room and I'll be looking for some pain killers, I'll find the pills and go to take one, but realize that they don't look right." She knelt down in front of Winry on the couch. "I'll be mad that she switched them, because I'm going to check her pills on the top of the fridge." Izumi had been watching Clause take her medicine each morning from the top of the fridge, so she checked the bottle and sure enough, they were over the counter medication. "Because of that, I'm going to look around her room for other things she's been hiding. That's when I'll find the tape."

"Won't she be mad, if you do that it's like you don't trust her."

Izumi nodded. "Then I'll ask for some proof as to why I should trust her. The burden of trust is up to her at that point." She took Winry gently by her wrists and stood her up. "You should leave now, she's going to be back from her dentist appointment soon, so there's no blame on you."

"THank you IZumi." Her voice cracked as she gave her a hug.

"Hurry now, before Ed's parents know you're missing." Winry had a great deal of trust for Izumi, so she told her where she was going to say she was staying at that afternoon, rather than being over at Izumi and Sig's house. The look on her face when she told her that Ed was in on it said more than enough. Of course, Izumi was aware of Winry's parents, promised to keep their relationship a secret till Winry was ready to confront them.

* * *

Finally, sneaking her way back into the backyard, she waved to Ed in the window. There was a tree close enough to Al's window for her to climb up and into the house. She didn't want his folks to know that she had left, had Clause come to question them, they wouldn't have to lie, and no nenighbours saw her either, the meeting with Izumi went perfectly.

Ed opened the window as far as it could go and stretched out his arms. "Careful, Al's in the spare room working out, he might hear us."

She carefully edged her way to the window frame and grabbed on, Ed held her wrists tightly, but not too hard, then winry gained her footing on the lattace adronind the back wall and attempted to pull herself up, but slipped and let out a frightened yelp. Luckily for her Ed's grip held true and she regained her footing and hopped into the bedroom. "Thanks Ed, it went really well."

"What went well?"Al said from his doorway.

As if on cue, Ed and Winry turned at the same time to see Al standing there arms folded, looking rather pissed off. "Hey Al." Ed said with surprise. "When did you get there?"

"I got 'there' after I heard someone scream in my room. What the fuck are you doing?" He extended a hand, palm up, toward his window.

Ed had no words, he shifted his eyes from the window to Winry and back again. "Ya see..."

"Let's just tell him, he's dating Clause anyway."

"'Dating' is such a strong word. Bu-but explain what?" Al motioned for them to spill everything, a circular motion of the hand said it.

Again, Winry went over the story in detail.

Al stood in awe at the amount of information he had received, he stood in silence for a solid thirty seconds before reaching for his phone. "Bitch'is getting a text break up."

They both jumped. "No!"

Winry continued. "I know you're mad, but understand, she's sick, she not thinking rationally. If you're going to break up with her, fine, just do it face to face."

"Yeah, Al, be a man about it." Ed chimed in.

Al closed his phone. "Fine."

"Actually Al, now that I think about it, could you stick with her for a little while longer?" She folded her hands. "After her mom confronts her, she's going to need a shoulder to cry on, and if you dump her right now, she's going go over the deep end. I'm asking this as a favor, just till she's back on her medication."

"What's in it for me? I'm dating a psychopath."

"She's sick Al." Ed said monotone.

"Psychopath's _are_ sick Ed. She needs help...bah, I guess. But I want something in return." He pointed a finger at Winry. "I want a date."

Ed did his best to hide any emotion, but Winry was shocked. "But I can't, my parents won't let me date."

Al turned his back. "Then I don't know how far I'm willing to go for this Clause girl."

Winry looked at Ed and shrugged she had a look on her face as if to say 'what now'? To which Ed mouthed to her 'do what you need to' and smiled with a nod. "Well, I'll leave you to to discuss that. Winry, I'll be waiting to finish up the English homework with you." That being said, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and trotted off back to his room.

She was sure he meant what he said, Ed was a good guy, and it was nice to see him beinding the rules of their relationship to help her friend; she smiled warmly and put a hand on Alphonse's shoulder. "Alright, one date."

He whipped around, shocked to shit. "For real?"

"**One** date! My parents will kill me if they find out." She swung her arms behind her back. "Don't think too much of this."

He shook his head. "No problem. But hey, if I win you over with unfailing kindness, might you consider something more?"

Winry shrugged. "I don't know how I'm going to feel Al, just expect a date."

"Good enough for me." He smiled and went back off to the weight room triumphantly.

Winry headed back into Ed's room to finish their homework, she looked at the clock. "Wow, ten to seven already."

"I know." He smirked. "We should actually start the work this time."

* * *

"Alright, we have the results right here!" Aria waved a few folders up in the air. "These are the ones from the attic." She handed them to Leo. "The main hall." Went to Sylvia. "And finally, _the bacement_." She said in a creepy tone and opened up the folder, the others followed suit and they all began flipping through the photographs.

"LOOK!" Paninya showed off one of the first pictures in her pile. "This looks like a person." She showed the group, all but who Ed was absent helping Winry again, he said to go on without him. The picture was of a wall with some torn up wallpaper coming off it, there was an image of person on the remaining wallpaper, but the outline had been burned, as if a burning body was laid against the wall and was left to burn out and then was peeled away.

"And here." Russell took a picture that leo was looking at, it was from upstairs, and it looked like a table with restraining devices for each wrist and each foot.

"This is messed up." Sylvia shook her head and caught a glimpse of what Aria was wide eyed over. "What the hell?"

"I think we might have stepped in something guys." She held out the photo, it was the one she and Ed took of a darkend hole in the bacement. The was a skeleton thrown into the hole, towards the back, and it had a large gash going across it's eyes. "We might have stepped into a murder."

Russell held up another. "I always said sitting still in church was always torture, but did not know of what I spoke." There were weapons scattered about, whips, a gun, a large knife, proped or hung in the corner.

* * *

Now, I know I said there wasn't going to be a long wait...but I broke my computer (Jordan's Computer) and couldn't update. I'm sorry for not updating as quickly as I'd like, but whenever I'd manage to get a loan of someone't computer, I was never in the mood to wirte.

I don't know when I'll update next, but I'm going to do my best. Jordan's father is home from away and has given him a loan of his computer, but I only get it when he's over my place.

I'll try to get things posted as quickly as possible, but I can't make any promises.

Sorry again, but let me know what you think.


End file.
